U.S. government orders YouTube to remove legal firearm how-to videos
Millions of Americans are struggling amid record inflation just to make ends meet, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg thinks it is more important to
censor firearms content on YouTube.
Bragg is pushing the Google-owned video platform to stop directing viewers to videos about "ghost guns" via its algorithm, which he says "paves a path from shooter-style video game guides to homemade firearm assembly via 3D printing instructions," to quote
Reclaim the Net's Christina Maas.
"We are seeing actual cases with actual people with ghost guns who are telling us they got the ghost gun because of YouTube," Bragg stated about why pushing for more YouTube censorship is his top priority right now.
Bragg's office actually took time on the taxpayer dime to capture screenshots showing how YouTube's algorithm takes users from videos about gameplay suggestions for a popular video game called Call of Duty to tutorials about how to construct 3D-printed guns at home.
"All you need is a computer and a mouse and an interest in gaming, and you can go from games to guns in 15 minutes," Bragg said in a statement, employing the
but think about the children trope to pull at his supporters' heartstrings.
"What we want to happen today is for YouTube to not have an algorithm that pushes people, especially our youth, to ghost guns."
(Related: As the Wuhan coronavirus [COVID-19] "pandemic" was winding down in late 2022, YouTube
decided to implement a new "certification" protocol for videos containing medical information – everyone must now align their content with World Health Organization [WHO] dictates.)
You can't always get what you want
What Bragg and his people "want" is not necessarily what they are going to get, though. He can cry and whine all he wants about YouTube content, but the fact remains that the video platform is not obligated under any law to do what Bragg is asking.
In New York where Bragg lives and works, there have been measures put in place to stop the spread of ghost guns, which anyone can build at home. Back in 2021, the state passed legislation to explicitly ban the sale, possession and distribution of ghost gun parts and kits, the excuse being that unregistered firearms are a threat to public safety.
"The new laws make it illegal to own or sell any gun that lacks a serial number, a crucial step to prevent untraceable weapons from circulating in the black market," Maas further writes.
"But content about ghost guns, including discussions on how to assemble them or create 3D-printed firearm components is, many free speech groups agree, likely protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and other watchdog groups say that ghost gun prohibition laws like those now on the books in the Empire State are unconstitutional because sharing blueprints for creating firearms is a protected activity under the First Amendment.
"This stance is rooted in the belief that information, in its various forms, is a form of speech," Maas explains. "This extends to digital files, like blueprints and code, used to create 3D-printed guns or assemble other untraceable firearms."
Even so, America's political class, mostly on the left but sometimes also on the right, is paying no mind to the unconstitutionality of its gun grab efforts. Congress continues to pressure tech platforms like YouTube to remove all kinds of content to which they object, almost always claiming public safety and national security concerns as the excuse.
An armed population is a threat to a tyrannical government, hence why the U.S. deep state is desperate to abolish the Second Amendment. The free speech video platform
Brighteon.com welcomes firearms how-to videos that teach self-reliance and self-defense.
Sources for this article include:
ReclaimTheNet.org
NaturalNews.com