They ‘Deplatformed Me!’ Glenn Beck Goes Off on Apple for Temporarily Pulling His Podcast Catalog, Bashes Company Chalking it Up to a ‘Trademark Dispute’
Glenn Beck pushed back on Apple’s decision to temporarily remove his entire show from their platform and warned that this could be dire for free speech.
On Wednesday afternoon, Beck, an often controversial political commentator, took to Twitter to announce that Apple’s podcast team had removed his show The Glenn Beck Program from their network. He claimed, no formal reason was given.
“This is from Apple. ‘We found an issue with your show, The Glenn Beck Program, which must be resolved before it’s available on Apple Podcasts. Your show has been removed from Apple Podcasts,’ from the Apple Podcast team. They sent us a link and said, ‘For more details, go to the link.’ And the link only says your show has been removed from Apple Podcasts. Well, we got that one dummy,” Beck said.
The topic began trending on Twitter and six hours later, Apple put the show back online.
A statement from Apple to Variety read:
“The Glenn Beck Program” was removed from Apple Podcasts because of a trademark dispute involving Beck’s podcast and that the issue has since been resolved.
According to the outlet, no explanation was given regarding the details of the “trademark dispute.”
There was just one problem, although the show was technically back online, the catalog was missing a vast number of episodes. Of the over 3,000 episodes removed, only 1,915 shows would be available again on the site.
Beck reacted to the events on the Thursday edition of his syndicated radio show, The Glenn Beck Program.
“Apple totally deplatformed me yesterday at about noon, they removed every last episode from Apple Podcasts. It was removed with no explanation — for several hours,” Beck said.
The radio host was thankful for the support he received from both those on the right and left who advocated for Apple to restore his show.
“After 6 hours of you raising all kinds of ruckus online, Apple restored my show to their platform. Well, 1915 episodes of 3,000-plus catalog. So they removed at least a decade’s worth of content yesterday without explanation,” Beck added.
Beck noted an article in Variety in which Apple said via a statement that the situation was due to a “trademark dispute.”
“Really? Really a trademark. Wow. Over 3,000 episodes all over a trademark issue. That is weird,” Beck said.
The radio host clarified that the show has had ONE trademark dispute over ONE solitary episode. The issue, Beck says, was promptly addressed and resolved back on June 29th within a matter of hours.
“Now, if that is the reason, that’s one episode. We resolved it with them within hours. Why would you remove the over 3,000 episodes for a dispute with one?” Beck asked.
“Doesn’t explain why they would remove the entire catalog. At least to me, it doesn’t. Apple still has not responded to that. Yesterday is a prime example where I learned firsthand why The Blaze is so important,” Beck said of the media company he founded in 2011.
“I learned the power of these middlemen. If you’re a conservative, the threat of deplatforming is always there, even in the background,” Beck said. “Companies like Apple and Google and Meta can shut down your speech, our speech literally with a keystroke. The elites have always wanted to control what you see and what you hear. Now big tech is giving them the means to do it,” Beck warned.
