YouTube Questioned By GOA Congress Over Firearms Content Policy Changes | Guns & Gadgets 2nd Amendment News

Hey guys, I want to address the issues here on YouTube. I mentioned in a video I did yesterday morning that YouTube is cracking down on the Second Amendment community, specifically more on the guys and gals who are out there showing you these tools, reviewing these tools, so that you may be better educated in the tools that you purchase going forward. And I want to show you what’s going on behind the scenes. There’s been some pushback on our side. We’ll start with Gun Owners of America. They push back. I’ll show you what this policy change is believed to have come from.

You might have heard District Attorney Alan Bragg’s name before in New York. And I’ll show you what Congress is doing, at least the House Judiciary Committee. And hopefully something comes of this because what YouTube is doing is blatantly unconstitutional. It’s singling out a part of the community that does things lawfully and legally because of political pressure and third party pressure, like every town and Moms Demand Action and Bloomberg and all those unconstitutional groups. So we’ll start here with what GOA did and we’ll go forward from there. So stick with me. If you have a YouTube channel, you probably know this, but if you don’t, or if you wonder why some of your channels might be doing some things a little bit different, this is why.

So this is GOA’s press release that they put out on June 4th. It says Gun Owners of America issued the following statements after YouTube announced a formal change in their policies toward firearm related content, restricting access for adults only for content that depicts wholly legal and constitutionally protected activity is wrong. And it aims to push a sinister narrative to minors that firearms are evil. This is my buddy, Eric Pratt, who is GOA’s senior vice president. He continued, in turn, as younger generations come of age, they will not question or push back on further violations of our Second Amendment rights.

Another one of my friends, Aidan Johnston, who is Gun Owners of America’s director of Federal Affairs, he said, Alvin Bragg and his anti-gun friends have been aggressively pressuring YouTube to censor and directly prohibit certain content related to guns for years now. And sadly, they just succeeded and free speech has once again become the victim. Congress must demand answers from YouTube on how influential DA Bragg and gun control groups were in facilitating this change in policy and determine whether the Biden administration or its White House Office of Gun Control was weaponized to force the censorship of Second Amendment content.

Here’s some background by GOA. I’m sorry, my neighbors are getting their lawn done. It said this week, YouTube and parent company Google announced plans to change their policy on firearms related content effective June 18 here in 2024. Under the new policy, which will be retroactive to apply to all existing content on the platform, the following will apply. Content showing the use of homemade firearms, automatic firearms and certain firearm accessories will be age restricted. Content showing how to remove safety devices will be banned and they left it very vague. Firearms and movies, video games, military and police footage and war zone footage will not categorically be age restricted, creating a double standard for Hollywood and anti-gun corporate media.

In April, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg sent a letter to YouTube CEO Neil Mohan urging him to alter their algorithms to ensure that certain firearms content not be promoted. Additionally, he urged the company to directly censor and remove certain firearms related content. This letter came on the heels of Media Matters publishing an anti-gun propaganda piece attacking YouTube and certain content, the biased media outlet deemed unfavorable. Additionally, in May of 2023, the anti-gun group Everytown published an article highlighting anti-gun research about YouTube’s firearms content from the Tech Transparency Project, which was a key citation in DA Bragg’s letter.

Anti-gun groups are continuing their crusade against online firearms content with the hope of leveraging these efforts into censorship and lawsuits should social media companies refuse to comply. GOA, which runs a YouTube channel with over 175,000 subscribers and counting, will continue to push back. Alright, so you heard what GOA said and they referenced the letter by DA Bragg, the same guy who went after President Donald Trump. He sent this letter here that I figure will show you and then will show you what his response was right after YouTube changed their policy in response to his letter. Here’s his letter, it was dated April 24th, it says, Dear Mr.

Mohan, I’m writing in my capacity as the Manhattan district attorney about concerns over YouTube’s hosting of videos on how to make and manufacture so-called ghost guns, as well as the algorithm that pushes these videos onto the screens of young children. Privately made firearms, commonly referred to as ghost guns, are firearms that have been completed, assembled, or produced by a person other than a licensed manufacturer without serial numbers. These guns are available without a background check and can be difficult if not impossible to track. They can be 3D printed or assembled from individual parts and instructions for both methods are not only available on YouTube but actively recommended to children interested in video games.

A 2023 report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that between 2017 and 2021 there was a 1,083% increase in the number of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement agencies from potential crime scenes and submitted to ATF, including 692 used in homicides or attempted homicides. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, the number of recovered and submitted ghost guns more than doubled from 8,504 to 19,273. ATF also believes that these numbers underrepresent the number of ghost guns recovered and they do not even begin to take into account the ghost guns that remain on the streets.

In New York City, the NYPD reported a significant increase in ghost guns seized on the streets over the past four years. In 2020, 150 ghost guns were seized. In 2021, this increased to 263 ghost guns. In the past two years, the total number seized was 825. Letters sent to YouTube from Every Time for Gun Safety in 2021 and the United States Senate in 2022 both detail how YouTube’s community guidelines specifically prohibit content instructing viewers on how to create these guns. The community guidelines explicitly state that content intended to sell firearms, instruct viewers on how to make firearms, ammunition in certain accessories, or instruct viewers on how to install those accessories is not allowed on YouTube.

Yet this content continues to persist on the platform. Recursory search for how to print a 3D gun on YouTube immediately brings up instructional videos that clearly violate the community guidelines. Perhaps even more troubling is the publicly reported evidence that these videos that should not be available are being actively pushed by YouTube algorithms to minors who begin watching clips of video games. A 2023 study by the Tech Transparency Project created four test YouTube accounts, two identifying as 9-year-old boys and two identifying as 14-year-old boys, and used these accounts to play at least 100 gaming videos. The YouTube algorithm then began pushing content on shootings and weapons, including instructional videos about ghost guns, to all four accounts regardless of whether the accounts interacted with the recommended videos or not.

These videos not only violated the community guidelines, but they were not even age restricted. Additionally, even for parents actively trying to keep their children safe, there is no way to turn off the YouTube recommended system. As identified by the Tech Transparency Project, the video game to ghost gun manufacturing path is playing out in homes across New York City. In a number of cases before my office, young individuals who were being investigated for ghost gun possession and manufacturing tell a similar story and have explicitly stated that they have learned to build ghost guns on YouTube with some learning how to do so in less than an hour.

The bottom line is that allowing videos on the platform that instruct users on how to create dangerous, difficult to trace weapons, and actively targeting children with these videos leads to the proliferation of ghost guns and the illegal possession of dangerous firearms by our most vulnerable. There are numerous examples of YouTube removing videos once they are called out by gun safety groups or the media. This signals to me that YouTube does not stand by its community guidelines. However, these reactive strategies do not go far enough. YouTube must revise its content moderation strategies to take a proactive role in both making sure that current videos demonstrating how to create ghost guns are removed and further videos are prohibited from being uploaded.

Additionally, YouTube must modify its algorithms to immediately stop recommending videos with violent content, including those modeling ghost guns to children. There should also be an option to turn off recommendations altogether for those who choose. I believe these steps are a public safety imperative to protect New York City residents and especially our children from going down a dangerous path. In order to facilitate these necessary changes, I respectfully request the meeting with representatives from YouTube and members of my office. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is committed to working with you to curb the rise in ghost guns and keep our children and communities safe.

Alvin L. Bragg Jr. OK, so that’s the letter that many think spurred this change. And why do we think that? Well, because Alvin Bragg’s office said this shortly after YouTube announced their plan changes. It says, D.A. Bragg applauds YouTube for changing firearm content guidelines in response to advocacy from office. We’ll jump right down to his quote here. It says, We applaud YouTube for implementing these important common sense fixes to their community guidelines, which will further limit dangerous videos and minimize firearm content for minors. We have heard firsthand from young individuals that YouTube’s algorithm is driving them to the world of illegal and 3D printed firearms, which is having a direct impact on the safety of Manhattanites.

I thank YouTube for their responsiveness and willingness to work with our office, and we look forward to continue collaboration on this issue. Gun violence tears at the fabric of our communities and has claimed far too many innocent lives, which is why combating gun violence and stopping the proliferation of illegal firearms and ghost guns remain a top priority. We will continue to use every tool at our disposal to address illegal weapons in our communities. Well, I wish they would do what they could to fight illegal weapons. Well, there’s no such thing as an illegal weapon. There’s just criminals who utilize them against good people.

But what Alvin Bragg and even YouTube’s fallen for is that gun ownership is totally legal, and making your own firearms has been totally illegal since before this country was even a country. This is all word salad to try to scare YouTube, and it looks like it worked. So along with the pressure from gun owners of America, we have Jim Jordan and the Committee on the Judiciary sent this letter yesterday to Mr. Daniel Dunavon, who is an attorney for Alphabet, which is Google, the parent company of YouTube. Dear Mr. Dunavon, the Committee on the Judiciary and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are conducting oversight on how and to what extent the executive branch has coerced or colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor American speech.

Congress has an important interest in protecting and advancing fundamental free speech principles to develop effective legislation such as the possible enactment of new statutory limits on the executive branch’s ability to work with big tech to restrict the circulation of content and deplatform users, the Committee and the Select Subcommittee must first understand how and to what extent the executive branch coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech. As part of this oversight on February 15th of 2023, after efforts to obtain the voluntary compliance of your client Alphabet, the Committee issued a subpoena for relative documents with a return date of March 23, 2023.

The subpoena compels Alphabet to produce communications between Alphabet and the executive branch, internal Alphabet communications discussing communications from the executive branch, and Alphabet communications with third parties that may have been working with the executive branch in addition to other key information. In light of YouTube’s recent announcement that it will be changing its content moderation policies on June 18th of 2024 to further censor content relating to firearms and other constitutionally protected Second Amendment activity, we write to remind Alphabet that the subpoena’s obligation is continuing in nature and to request that you produce documents relating to this new policy change.

The Committee’s and Select Subcommittee’s oversight has shown how the federal government has coerced or colluded with technology, social media, and other companies, including Alphabet, to moderate content online. In particular, the Committee obtained documents showing how the federal government has pressured Alphabet to censor certain content, including content that did not violate YouTube’s content moderation policies. Recent reporting and other publicly available information suggests that YouTube’s decision to change its firearms policy may have been influenced by government officials and third-party interests in suppressing certain Second Amendment-related content. For example, on April 24, 2024, New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who hired the third-highest-ranking Department of Justice official to assist in his partisan prosecution of President Trump, wrote a letter to YouTube demanding that the platform revise its content moderation policies to further censor firearms-related content.

Following YouTube’s announcement, Bragg’s office issued a press release applauding the new firearms content policy change, suggesting that it was in response to Bragg’s demands. Given that YouTube has censored First Amendment-protected speech as a result of government agencies’ requests and demands in the past, these revelations raise serious concerns about whether and to what extent the executive branch is working with third parties and other intermediaries to coerce and or collude with YouTube to censor lawful speech. The committee’s subpoena compels Alphabet to produce communications between Alphabet and other entities discussing content moderation, which includes communications and records involving referring and relating to Alphabet’s interactions with the executive branch and other entities regarding changes to its firearms content policy.

We write to inform you that documents concerning Alphabet’s interactions with the executive branch and third parties that may have been working with the executive branch relating to YouTube’s new firearms policy are responsive to the committee’s subpoena. We ask that you take all appropriate steps to identify and produce these responsive documents expeditiously, and we remind you that the committee’s subpoena imposes a legal obligation that is continuing in nature. Accordingly, please begin producing responsive documents and communications concerning YouTube’s new firearms policy change in accordance with the committee’s Feb. 15, 2023 subpoena as soon as possible but no later than 10 a.m.

on July 2, 2024. Pursuant to the rules of the House of Representatives, the Committee on the Judiciary has jurisdiction to conduct oversight of matters concerning civil liberties to inform potential legislative reforms. In addition, House Resolution 12, authorized by the committee, selects sub-committee on the weaponization of the federal government to investigate issues related to the violation of civil liberties of citizens of the United States. If you have any questions about the request, please contact the committee staff at 202-225-6906. Thank you for your client’s prompt attention to this matter. Jim Jordan, the chairman. So now you’re caught up on the policy changes that are being forced upon those of us in the community that aren’t doing anything wrong.

We follow their policy. We create content that is covered by the First and Second Amendment, yet the government is making sure that stops. And if you don’t think that Biden’s new office of gun control in the White House is not doing this, you probably grew up under a rock, but it’s time to come out from under that rock. So I can’t wait to find out what happens here with the information that will be submitted next week or the week after. And don’t forget, there’s a lot of Supreme Court cases coming here in the next two weeks that implement our Second Amendment, the Rahimi case, as well as the Chevron deference case.

I’ll bring them to you. So you want to stay in the know, just subscribe to Guns and Gadgets. I’ll bring you that news every single day. Thank you for enjoying this beautiful weather with me. I hope you have a phenomenal day. Be safe. Stay vigilant and carry a gun to keep you, your friends, your community safe. We are the Sentinels of the Republic. It’s on us to keep it that way. Take care. Thank you. [tr:trw].

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