Rand Paul Receives 1 Week Suspension From YouTube Over Mask Claim

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been suspended from ▶️YouTube for one week after he posted a video questioning the effectiveness of masks.

In a statement to The Hill, a spokesperson for ▶️YouTube said the company removed Paul’s video and suspended his account for one week “for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies.”

“This resulted in a first strike on the channel, which means it can’t upload content for a week, per our longstanding three strikes policy. We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views, and we make exceptions for videos that have additional context such as countervailing views from local health authorities,” the spokesperson explained.

Paul fired back in a statement on Tuesday, “I think this kind of censorship is very dangerous, incredibly anti-free speech, and truly anti-progress of science, which involves skepticism and argumentation to arrive at the truth.”

He continued, “As a libertarian leaning Senator, I think private companies have the right to ban me if they want to, so in this case I’ll just channel that frustration into ensuring the public knows YouTube