Google has nothing to say yet about a lawsuit filed earlier this week that claims YouTube is violating the First Amendment by censoring conservative viewpoints.
The lawsuit comes from Prager University, run by radio-talk-show host Dennis Prager. According to the plaintiff, many of its “educational” videos have been put into “restricted mode.” Prager suspects there is no reasonable basis for this, other than viewpoint bias. The complaint filed in California federal court includes charts of restricted videos compared to unrestricted videos on “similar topics.” For example, Prager’s video titled “Are 1 in 5 women in college raped?” is on lockdown, while a Real Time With Bill Maher video about The Hunting Ground; an interview with former Vice President Joe Biden on how to end the campus rape crisis; and Lady Gaga singing about rape all can be seen by YouTube users.
We asked Google about the lawsuit. A representative responded, “No comment on this. We’ll let you know if this changes.”
We try not to read too much into silence. Especially from a defendant who has just been sued. After all, litigation is tricky, and everyone deserves time to investigate and muster a response. Still, a “no comment” days after the lawsuit was filed, especially from a company as big and sophisticated as Google, in the face of the allegation that the tech giant is discriminating against a good chunk of the country is at least somewhat worth exploring.
Google could easily have said, “We’re not censoring conservatives.”
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