Suspended account
I have a YouTube account that was shut down without warning by Google/YouTube with the following explanation:
“Your account has been terminated as a result of repeated abusive, hateful and/or harassing comments that violate our community guidelines. […] Please be aware that you are prohibited from accessing, possessing or creating any other YouTube accounts.”
However, I have not posted any abusive, hateful or harassing comments. In contrast, I have posted thoughtful and reasoned comments that are highly critical of Donald Trump. As a retired academic, teacher and scientist, and a published author, I am well able to compose posts on political and social issues that are carefully reasoned and are backed up with evidence. I have kept a record of my posts in text files, and these are given below, showing that none comprise hate speech. Many of my posts contain a link to an essay I wrote, entitled American Nightmare. This essay, which provides additional arguments for the content of my posts, is a serious commentary on the political economy of the USA today. Here is the link to a PDF file of the essay in my Dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/56muk59owpmiv2h/Trump-Collapse.pdf?dl=0
It is my guess that a MAGA Trump supporter complained, and Google/YouTube reacted by banning my account. It is possible that a AI automated system misjudged my posts. Irrespective of whom or what may have triggered the event, the banning is censorship of political speech that should be free as guaranteed by the constitution and laws in the USA and the laws pertaining to EU citizens, as well as the laws of the individual free countries of the EU.
This is a serious matter for me personally, as I have many subscriptions to accounts of economists, business advisors, political commentators, historians and other sources of information that I use on a daily basis. As a retired person I manage a portfolio of investments, and am subscribed to the YouTube channels of many investment advisors, business pundits, economists and others. As you will conclude from reading my essay (linked above), I make good use of these and similar sources of information.
However, it is a much more serious matter for the common good, from a legal perspective. The banning appears to be politically motivated, was enacted without warning by Google/YouTube where there is no separation of powers, but instead by an act of fiat by an absolute dictatorial executive.
Since the banning YouTube has restored my account after I filled in an appeal. However, this does not solve the problem. I am now reticent to express my opinion as it could again lead to a banning without warning. I have been effectively silenced.
Since services such as YouTube have become ubiquitous today are must be seen as essential social services, it is not acceptable that any individual can be excluded without due process of the law. This abuse of power by Google/YouTube must be addressed by the political representatives of the people. Any process should be transparent, and the appeal process should pass through an independent judicial system. Without transparency and separation of powers there cannot be justice.
Baron Bar