The moment that had been urged on YouTube by campaigners, MPs, peers, media people and indeed his many victims has finally arrived for Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. Twitter had banned him. PayPal had banned him. Most recently, Facebook had banned him, million followers or no. Now YouTube has severely restricted his access and slapped a health warning on his content. But it hasn’t banned him. Yet.
Not that you would know from the howls of protest emanating from Lennon’s website, which claims to deal in news (no link will be posted here). “BREAKING: YOUTUBE BANS TOMMY ROBINSON” whined the headline, which figures, as it was written by Avi Yemini, who epitomises the description Tedious Maximus. So what’s this “ban” about?
“YouTube has placed shocking new restrictions on Tommy Robinson’s channel, removing his videos from search results and prohibiting him from live-streaming to the platform … In March 2019, YouTube defended their decision to keep Mr Robinson on its site as he ‘did not breach YouTube terms of use’ … Today’s ban comes after months of intense bullying from senior British MPs”. He hasn’t been banned. Still, facts, eh?
Do go on. “These new ‘restrictions’ will mean Robinson’s new videos won’t have view counts, suggested videos, likes or comments. There’ll be an ‘interstitial’ or black slate that appears before each video warning people that it might not be appropriate for all audiences”. Dead right. Might bore the crap out of them, for starters.
Compare and contrast with the Mirror, which has posted a factually correct account of what has happened. “YouTube clampdown on Tommy Robinson: Social media site restricts far-right extremist … The former English Defence League leader has been stopped from live streaming and has videos will no longer come up in Youtube searches”.
Meanwhile, the mardy protests have begun in earnest, with the response of amateur comedy kidnapper Daniel Thomas, aka Danny Tommo, typical. “So without warning or reason @YouTube have now limited search content for Tommy Robinson's channel, you won't be able to search for any of his videos or content. It's becoming clear they fear him that much, they are taking him down from every side. They will never silence him”.
NEVAH! Who does this clown think he is, Churchill? But enough of this carping. Stephen Lennon has had his YouTube access restricted because of the constant diet of hate speech he serves up. Yes, he will holler long and loud that it isn’t hate speech, that he is merely bringing his fans THE TRUTH, and all the while snapping “Show me where it’s hate speech”, in the same way he shouts down opponents with “Tell me where I’m racist”.
“The truth”, as Lennon puts it, is that he is not exposing anyone - as he claims - but just jumping on bandwagons in order to score More And Bigger Paycheques For Himself Personally Now. And in the process, he stirs up hatred against not just Muslims, but all those who expose him as a shallow and unprincipled sham.
YouTube just made sure Stephen Lennon’s little Wild West Show would be that bit less effective in future. Just rejoice at that news.
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