Comedian Russell Brand lashed out at YouTube and accused the platform of hypocrisy after one of his videos was censored.
“We have been officially censored by YouTube,” Brand announced this week in a video. The Forgetting Sarah Marshall star said a video was removed from YouTube for misinformation. Brand pointed out that the “mainstream media” is allowed to put out misinformation on a constant basis on YouTube without consequence.
“We made an error, in my opinion a relatively small error, and we’re being penalized! For me that looks like censorship, and the reason I think it looks like censorship is because there’s mainstream media misinformation up all the time,” he said.
Brand said his video from earlier this month was on the “changing narratives” around Covid, in which he “misinterpreted” information from official government websites. The mistake was saying the government was recommending a certain treatment — which Brand bleeped out — but said treatment is only in trials.
Brand also revealed he removed an apology for the original video too after the YouTube censorship. The comedian took specific aim at MSNBC, playing a clip of MSNBC host Rachel Maddow discussing Covid-19 vaccines in 2021.
“A vaccinated person gets exposed to the virus? The virus does not infect them, the virus cannot then use that person to go anywhere else,” Maddow said the clip.
Brand noted the video is up on YouTube and branded it “misinformation.
“So we’re asking: Is there one standard for independent news broadcasters like us on our channel, and a different standard for what we would call the ‘mainstream media?'” he said.
Elon Musk, the once potential owner of Twitter, responded to Brand’s video saying the comedian made a “good point.”
In a tweet, Brand announced he is moving to Rumble, where numerous conservatives have taken to posting their videos.