[December 17, 2022] Two days ago, at a program on a new VA program to reduce military veteran suicides, I was taken aside by Michael Merlino, who runs the Veterans Matter Livestream Broadcast. Mike is one of the good guys, the kind of person you would want in your foxhole during a fight. He told me that YouTube censored his program because a recent broadcast told stories of Vets not liking the Biden Administration’s prisoner swap with Russia – an American female basketball player was swapped for a Russian arms dealer while leaving behind a U.S. Marine.1
Believe what you want, but letting an international terrorist go, who has killed many innocents, doesn’t seem like a good trade on any day. Michael was taking calls from American veterans who were upset with the prisoner swap. Of course, veterans weren’t the only folks unhappy with the trade. Many federal elected officials also expressed their dissatisfaction as well. The main reason so many people pushed back on the Biden Administration was that the Russian was an arms dealer convicted of conspiring to kill Americans. He is one of the world’s most evil people. Victor Bout was known as the “Merchant of Death.”
As regular readers of my program know, I’m a free speech advocate. And, yes, YouTube is a private company. But, we know from the Twitter files that the government has used Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media platforms to censor views the U.S. Government does not like. The USG and social media platforms are working together to suppress thoughts that is inconvenient to them. That is a clear violation of the U.S. First Amendment.
The Veterans Matter Livestream Broadcast was taken offline because, to quote a YouTube policy letter, “we think it violates our misinformation policy [bold in original].” They stated, “Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of the U.S. 2020 presidential election is not allowed on YouTube.” Veteran opinions about the prisoner swap or saying there were Election Day problems are apparently forbidden by YouTube.
Who would have known that YouTube censors American veterans? In addition, this is not the first time. The day of reckoning will soon come for social media companies working in tandem with USG officials to censor speech they don’t like.
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I need your help. I want to gather names of all vetrrans who were censored/punished by youtube/google/alphabet inc., who then went on to commit suicide. I believe there is a direct link, as this is currently happening to me. I cannot defend myself or my fellow veterans from accusations of genocide or baby-killing, or whatever else youtube finds acceptable, and I believe from experience that the lonliness and helpless feelings this engenders MUST BE a direct cause of some veteran suicides, and increased PTSD.
Please help me.
Shame on YouTube for their censorship of our vets.
Thank you, General Satterfield, for your support of Veterans Matter Livestream Broadcast.
Our show, which had originated from a talk/radio show on public & private radio, lastly from Stockton University and is now presented nationally (via livestream) from our Northfield, NJ studio (Intel Studios). The idea is to give the men and women whose sacrifice(d) so much for every freedom and liberty we enjoy a voice should never be censored.
I don’t put one American’s opinion as being more important than another, but I certainly weigh a veteran’s opinion on matters concerning military very highly.
We try to not be negative or encourage negativity towards the Commander-in-Chief but when certain decisions made by him (the withdrawal from Afghanistan for instance) have a negative effect on our veterans and the military there are consequences and one of them is opinions of those decisions.
I invite all interested to go to veteransmatternj.com (click on the “Our Shows” circle) and check out our broadcasts.
As one who spent 25 years on the sidelines (photography) and in locker rooms (doing interviews) of professional sports teams I can say without any ambiguity our heroes are not those between the white lines.
Mike, stand firm. We are all behind you and reject censorship.
Freedom-loving people stand with you Mike. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Too bad Youtube is censoring our vets. No censoring should occur but to vets who put their lives on the line for freedom. Now we have “freedom” to censor others. Sad. Has president Biden said anything about this? Oh, yea. He supports the censorship.
Right. Speech is not violence like the progressive, radical leftists try to say. It is the opposite. Speech was created as a substitute to violence. But speech might hurt your feelings but better your feelings are hurt than your head bashed in.
Excellent point Erleldech! You da man.
Well said, E. Thanks! 👍
It will be good to see the inside of their censorship regime. They are those who believe they are superior to us little people. They are “justified” to keep us as children and hide what is really happening. Just look at China as an example of what happens when the state (or it’s social media arm) lies daily and keeps the truth out.
Nothing like a little tyranny to make you appreciate freedom. Huh!
Yeah but censorship hurts us all, not just those censored because we are barred from hearing new ideas and ways of thinking that might change our minds about something of importance, like the US election in 2020. Everyone knows there was fraud. The amount of fraud is not known because that info is suppressed thru the FBI and DOJ.
“Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches changed the outcome of the U.S. 2020 presidential election is not allowed on YouTube.” Half of ALL Americans believe this to be true but YouTube can’t have wrongthink out there.
You Tube has long been a censor of ideas their hyper-liberal ideology rejects. You see, they can’t argue their thinking because it cannot stand daylight of exposure. Their ideas fail and fail spectacularly and fail all the time. They need to hid your ideas so their’s stand out.
Yes, Jonnie the Bart, they are just not censoring anybody (which in itself is bad) but they are censoring veterans who are the very people who have helped defend free speech in the fisrt place. This is a great shame they have brought upon themselves.
Sad that our Veterans are being censored.
I would say YouTube staffers and leadership are actually not liberal but are neo-Marxists. that is a better description and we know how Marxism worked out in the 20th century. 100+ million deaths, excluding war. Now I think that experiment was pretty conclusive.
Pow, got that right.
all good and thank you
“55 Rules for a Good Life” ….. get your copy today at Gen. Satterfield’s book signing ….. if you can’t be there (live too far), then just get a copy at Amazon. Also leave a review so others can read what your thoughts are about it.
If you don’t get a copy, the just go onto Amazon and click this link and get a copy for $9.99. Inexpensive gift for someone important to you.
Good luck today, Gen. Satterfield at your book signing. I wish you well. If I could only be there, we could talk about so much and I’m sure we’d get along just fine, being Veterans and all.
ArmyVet, you da man. I enjoyed your article the other day and all of them. Keep up your writing. And, yes, I’m sure we all wish we could be there. Book signings are more than about a book signing. If you’ve been to one, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Yes, we all are huge fans.
❤❤❤❤
Loving what Army Vet writes.
Yep!!!! Love this website.
Army Vet, big fan here. More articles on General Doug Satterfield’s huge leadership website is what we all like.
I do not find this surprising. The Nazis had their book burnings. YouTube has their idea burners. I think they are alike in more ways than simple censoring folks words. YouTube one day will take a big fall and we’ll be there to watch them as they crash and burn.
That will be a great day. 👍👍👍👍👍
ScrewTube censors are always looking out for the low-information citizen. Protecting them from having to think.