YouTube Suspends Steven Crowder for Reporting on Rape in Prisons Where Biological Men Housed with Female Inmates

The social media video-sharing website YouTube has suspended conservative commentator and comedian Steven Crowder's channel for one week, claiming Crowder broke their rules about hate speech. 

The Daily Wire reports the platform's attorney notified Crowder's attorney by email telling him about the strike that had been placed against Crowder's account and how a Sept. 30 video uploaded to Crowder's channel "targets the transgender community in an offensive manner."

The email said that YouTube has also blocked Crowder from posting videos to any of his accounts for one week.

According to The Daily Wire, the email said in part: 

"We write again on YouTube's behalf regarding your client, Steven Crowder. YouTube has repeatedly instructed Mr. Crowder regarding its hate speech policy and warned him against continuing violations of that policy through content he uploaded to YouTube. YouTube specifically warned Mr. Crowder that videos he uploaded showed a pattern of recklessly targeting the LGBTQ+ community for abuse and insults. It warned that further uploading of content that targets, insults, and/or abuses the LGBTQ+ community would result in additional penalties."

"On September 30, Mr. Crowder uploaded another video that YouTube has determined continues his prior conduct," the email continued. "The video entitled 'Special Guest ALEX JONES on 'Great Reset' & Joe Rogan TRIGGERS Leftists AGAIN!' contains a segment that targets the transgender community in an offensive manner, for example, by indicating that trans people pose a rape threat to women."

"Consistent with the recklessness provisions of its hate speech policy, YouTube has removed this video from the service and assessed a strike against the Steven Crowder channel," the email said. "Per YouTube's strikes policy, this results in a one-week upload freeze for the channel. Further violation of YouTube's hate speech policy will result in additional penalties."

Unsure of the exact reason for the punishment from YouTube, Crowder asked for clarification from the platform, requesting time stamps for the Sept. 30 video, which earned him another strike, according to The Daily Wire. 

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A post on Crowder's website explained the video in question.

"During the September 30 show, we discussed a news article entitled Female inmate now pregnant after California pro-trans policy forces women's prisons to house biological men despite prisoners' pleas, warnings: report, and there was a short comedy sketch after that. The news article was a report on female prisoners becoming impregnated when they were forced to share cells with biological men." 

Crowder announced to his followers about the block on Twitter:

"A hard strike from YouTube and Wow… this is terrifying. We covered SPECIFIC, documented instances of rape. @YouTube says not allowed. All parents should take note. If you believe in the insane notion of biological sex, you will be silenced."

YouTube's latest action is at least the third strike against Crowder this year. 

As CBN News reported in May, Crowder announced he was taking YouTube to court over its content practices and policies which he says are used to silence conservative voices.

In March, YouTube removed Crowder's channel from its partner program indefinitely, which will not allow him to make money from ads running with his videos. 

The social media platform removed Crowder's video from March 16 containing references about black farmers and slavery.  The company said the video violated its COVID-19 misinformation policy and not its policy concerning hate speech, according to HITC.com.

YouTube also banned Crowder for uploading a now-deleted video that reportedly challenged the legitimacy of the election in Nevada. The company has a policy against posting videos that claim there was fraud in the presidential election. 

The second strike against him reportedly came in April over Crowder's comments about a Columbus, Ohio police shooting in which an officer shot and killed black teen Ma'Khia Bryant as she was trying to stab another girl. YouTube said Crowder was "reveling in or mocking" the black girl's death.  

Crowder denied the charge in May, and his show reminded listeners that even if the commentator had violated YouTube policy it is a comedy show and is exempted under the policy. 

Crowder is a conservative political commentator, media host, and comedian with millions of social media followers. He hosts "Louder with Crowder", a daily political podcast. He is particularly notable for a recurring segment called "Change My Mind". He is also a former contributor at Fox News. His main YouTube channel currently has more than 5.5 million subscribers.