Over the past few years, YouTube has quietly been discriminating against conservative-leaning videos, thereby violating users' right to free speech. This week, PragerU decided to fight back by filing a lawsuit against YouTube claiming that the site unjustifiably slapped its videos with “restricted mode” or “demonetization” filters, violating its First Amendment right to free speech.

Google/YouTube seek to justify…[its] animus and bias [towards PragerU’s political identity and viewpoint] not by claiming that PragerU has violated YouTube’s restricted content guidelines or criteria, but by arguing that they retain unfettered discretion to censor any video content that they deem “inappropriate,” no matter how subjective, baseless, or arbitrary that decision is…For over one year, PragerU has worked patiently and cooperatively to try to resolve the censorship issues that comprise this Lawsuit. In response, Google/YouTube have provided vague, misleading, confusing, and often contradictory information that not only has prevented resolution of the issues, but constitutes further evidence and indicia that their restricted mode filtering applied to PragerU is based on Defendants’ [Google/YouTube’s] intentional discrimination and animus… ... The United States Supreme Court…recognized more than a half-century ago that the right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution can apply even on privately owned property. One of the most important places to exchange and express views is cyberspace, particularly social media, where users engage in a wide array of protected First Amendment activity on any number of diverse topics. Where, as in the case of Google/YouTube, a private party operates as one of the largest internet forums for speech and expression in the history of the world and such forum is accessible to and freely used by the public in general, there is nothing to distinguish it from any other forum except the fact that title to the property on which the forum exists belongs to a private corporation. As the highest court in the nation has made clear, ‘[t]he more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it.’

We're glad to see that a conservative group is finally standing up to YouTube!

This trend of censorship against conservative outlets has unfortunately become increasingly common in the United States. The left has made it clear that it is out to restrict the First Amendment rights of conservatives in order to give them as few platforms as possible to express their views. While leftwing users are free to spout whatever nonsense they want on YouTube, the video site has worked overtime to silence conservative voices.

The American left is constantly claiming that it is open-minded people, yet continues to be closed-minded towards any views that differ from its own. As a result, our country has become more divided than ever before, with leftists not even trying to understand the reasoning behind why so many people voted for Donald Trump. Sites like YouTube only deepen this divide by censoring conservatives. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that conservative voices are allowed to be heard!

What do you think about this lawsuit? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.