Vox journalist Carlos Maza on Thursday criticized Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzCruz blocks amended resolution honoring Ginsburg over language about her dying wish Trump argues full Supreme Court needed to settle potential election disputes Press: Notorious RBG vs Notorious GOP MORE for "defending someone who spent two years calling me a lispy queer," after the Texas Republican came out in defense of right-wing commentator Steven Crowder on Twitter.

"A U.S. senator is coming to the defense of someone who spent two years calling me a 'lispy queer,'" Maza tweeted in response to Cruz on Thursday afternoon. "They do this because they know that @YouTube cares more about looking fair to right-wingers than it does about stopping hate speech and harassment."

Maza has been speaking out this week about the two years of insults and derogatory comments he has dealt with from Crowder, a popular YouTuber with more than 3.8 million subscribers.

In a viral Twitter thread last week, Maza compiled a montage of Crowder referring to Maza using slurs including "lispy queer" and calling him the "gay Mexican from Vox," among others.

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YouTube, after a four-day investigation, announced that it would not be taking action against Crowder, saying his comments targeting Maza's ethnicity and sexuality did not violate their policies against harassment or hate speech.

The company the next day said it would be "demonetizing" Crowder's channel, meaning he will not be able to make money from ads on his channel until he stops selling a shirt that says "Socialism is for F*gs" on his account and deals with other "issues" with his channel.

Cruz, who has crusaded against the country's largest tech companies over what he says is a bias against conservative, weighed in on Thursday, after YouTube announced it would demonetize Crowder.

"This is ridiculous," Cruz wrote. "YouTube is not the Star Chamber — stop playing God & silencing those voices you disagree with. This will not end well. #LouderWithCrowder."

Cruz in subsequent tweets claimed Crowder had been banned, which he has not been.

Responding to Maza's tweet, Cruz wrote, "Sigh. This individual claims to be a 'journalist.' Then he throws a fit & demands that YouTube CENSOR views he doesn’t like. Here’s a crazy idea: if you don’t like what @scrowder says, ARGUE AGAINST HIM. Make your case in what John Stuart Mill called the “marketplace of ideas.”

Crowder, in videos since YouTube demonetized his channel, has said that the bulk of his income does not come from ads viewed on YouTube. He said he makes most of his money from merchandise and other monetary support from his fans.

Maza, in an interview with The Hill on Wednesday, accused YouTube of avoiding taking action against harassment out of fear of conservative claims of political bias.

"Conservatives have been incredibly effective at beating the war drum of anti-conservative bias in the hopes of pressuring platforms to be more lenient towards them and avoid enforcing their anti-harassment and anti-bullying policies," Maza said. "You’ve seen it in this case and it is horrifying to see a huge section of the conservative echo chamber essentially argue that hate speech and bigotry is a legitimate and valid and valuable part of conservative political discourse."

"The stuff in question is somebody calling me a 'lispy queer' and a gay Mexican and it is really bonkers to imagine that there are serious people on the right who argue that that kind of speech is an important and worthwhile part of political discourse and that restricting hate speech is an affront to conservatives," he said.

Members of the LGBTQ community, supporters and YouTube critics have rallied behind Maza over the past few days, accusing YouTube of putting profits over user safety. And they have criticized YouTube's response to the controversy, which has involved a series of tweets clarifying their previous positions.

In a blog post late Wednesday night, YouTube said it plans to begin reassessing its harassment policies in light of the incident.

Conservatives have also been criticizing YouTube’s decision to demonetize Crowder, pointing to the move as an example of right-wing censorship by the Google-owned company. The clash has highlighted YouTube’s challenges in enforcing its rules and determining where to draw the line on problematic content.