US : YouTube suspended Sen. Rand Paul’s account for posting a video claiming cloth face masks are ineffective against the coronavirus.
“A badge of honor … leftwing cretins at Youtube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer reviewed articles saying cloth masks don’t work,” Paul, R-Ky., tweeted.
Paul falsely claimed in the removed video, “Most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work. They don’t prevent infection,” adding that “cloth masks don’t work.”
A spokesperson for YouTube that the video violated company policy on Covid-19 misinformation, which includes “claims that wearing a mask is dangerous or causes negative physical health effects” or that masks don’t play a role in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19.
“We removed content from Senator Paul’s channel for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies,” the spokesperson said. “This resulted in a first strike on the channel, which means it can’t upload content for a week, per our longstanding three strikes policy.”
Paul claimed in a separate post on the conservative website Liberty Tree, “I haven’t lied. I haven’t used expletives. I haven’t spread misinformation. I have only told the truth about what our government seeks to do to us, curtailing our most basic liberties, using the COVID-19 pandemic as their excuse.”
NBC
