Politics

Diamond and Silk threaten lawsuit against YouTube for discrimination — Video

While appearing on the Alex Jones Show Monday, Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, the YouTube sensations known as “Diamond and Silk,” two very outspoken and popular supporters of President Trump, said they intend to file a lawsuit against YouTube, alleging discrimination after the social media company reportedly demonetized 95 percent of their content.

On Friday, Breitbart reported:

YouTube allegedly demonetized the vast majority of videos posted on “The Viewer’s View” channel, hosted by Diamond and Silk. The duo believes this was due to their vocal support of President Trump.

Tune in to The Viewer’s View, and you will find a collection of video blog posts with a loudly outspoken conservative-oriented theme that play like especially emphatic clips from the ABC show upon which they are riffing. Everyone from Kathy Griffin to CNN is fair game for the boisterous online duet of Diamond and Silk.

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On August 10, Diamond and Silk took to Twitter to question the sudden demonetization of their video series, and they are pretty certain they know the reasoning behind the decision:

The ladies further believe the move was due to their support of the president:

They also suggested the censorship was due to their conservative beliefs:

They suggested a possible class-action lawsuit last week.

Even former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin came to their defense:

On Monday, they told Jones they suspect the discrimination is due to their race and their conservative political views:

“Well, I’m looking into the best anti-discrimination, anti-trust lawyers, and I’m giving you my commitment that we’re going to find the lawyers,” Jones said.  “I’m going to sue them,” he added, encouraging the ladies to join as plaintiffs along with Paul Joseph Watson.

“This is the shutdown of free speech,” Jones added, calling it un-American and dangerous.

A successful lawsuit against YouTube, however, won’t be easy.  As Adina Kutnicki, an investigative journalist based in Israel, and I point out in our book, “Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad,” censorship like that employed by YouTube, Facebook and others, is sanctioned by federal law, specifically Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

That doesn’t mean there are no options for those who feel the site is discriminating against them based on their point of view — it just won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap.  Sadly, that’s the state of free speech in America these days.

If, however, the lawsuit against YouTube is successful, it could open the door for similar lawsuits against social media sites that seem to discriminate based on political points of view.

A post at the Independent Journal Review noted:

The hilariously outspoken ladies have been featured at Trump campaign rallies and on shows on One America News and Fox News Channel.

Bloomberg reports that in April YouTube announced new ad policies after advertisers found that their ads were “running alongside videos promoting hate, violence and racism.”

That wouldn’t seem to include Diamond and Silk.

“YouTube hasn’t commented about demonetizing most of Diamond and Silk’s videos, but, judging by social media, they’re sure hearing about it from Diamond and Silk supporters,” IJR said.

Now, it seems YouTube may be hearing from their lawyers before long.

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Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad
Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad – Source: Author (used with permission)

Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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