Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul pivoted his stance on Google and YouTube on Monday, writing “YouTube and its parent company Google deserves to be sued,” in an opinion piece for the New York Post (NY Post).
Paul, who has a history of backing the private-property rights of internet companies, changed his stance due to a video YouTube refused to take down that accused Paul of taking money from captured, deposed and indicted Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. Paul called the video an “untruth” that is “essentially an accusation of treason,” which has spurred death threats against him, leading him to now pursue legislation to hold platforms liable for upholding defamatory content.
“The arrogance of Google to continue hosting this defamatory video and the resultant threats on my life have caused me to rethink Congress’ blind allegiance to liability shields,” Paul wrote for the NY Post in the piece titled, “I’ve changed my mind — Google and YouTube can’t be trusted to do the right thing and must be reined in.”
“Liability protection now encourages bad actors, many of whom are actually paid for their bad actions,” the senator added.
Paul, a staunch libertarian-conservative, wrote in his op-ed that while he had previously defended liability protection for social media sites under the right to free speech, he had never adequately considered how internet providers could host content accusing people of committing crimes. Paul asked a Google executive whether it would be acceptable to post defamatory comments calling a small town mayor a “pedophile,” to which the executive said YouTube does not monitor their content for truth and factual evidence.
However, YouTube took down videos throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that it found to be untrue, such as Paul’s video from the pandemic claiming “cloth masks don’t work,” the senator explained in his NY Post op-ed.
“Google does not have a blanket policy of refraining to evaluate truth. Google chooses to evaluate what it believes to be true when it is convenient and consistent with its own particular biases,” Paul wrote for the outlet.
The Kentucky Republican claimed in his op-ed Google and YouTube only moderate speech they do not like, stating that the latter platform in 2020 had taken down a clip of a Constitutionally protected Senate floor speech he made. Paul wrote that even despite the “obvious left-wing biased censorship,” he stood up for private property rights of the platforms at the time.
Paul went on to directly quote Google’s content moderation policy, claiming if the person who created the defamatory video had “also ridiculed my race or sexuality, Google would happily take down the post.”
Paul’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
While the senator, widely described as a noninterventionist, prominently supported failed efforts to prevent President Donald Trump from using military force on Venezuela without authorization from Congress, he has not expressed support for Maduro.
Censorship within social media and tech giants has long been a focal point for Congress.
Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, have mounted crusades against alleged censorship of conservative speech by big tech companies.
After years of criticism, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally earned praise from GOP lawmakers and Trump for ending the company’s previous fact-checking system in early 2025.
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