Governor Henry McMaster gave important opening remarks at the September 13th Lexington County Republican Executive Committee meeting. The SC Governor spoke for twelve minutes on South Carolina affairs and what his desire for and direction of the state should be.
At that meeting TheStandardSC broadcast a live stream of that Republican County Executive Committee meeting without comment on its YouTube channel. That video included the Governor’s entire speech.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster was censored by big IT giant YouTube in a live broadcast.
Following the Governor’s speech, others made remarks. The meeting also included a thirty-minute slide presentation on election information from the November 2020 election, which resulted in a vote by the elected committeemen of Lexington County. These committeemen voted and called for a forensic audit of the election in SC, detailed in a letter sent to both appointed and elected officials. The committeemen also publicly decided that a vote would be taken after twenty one days on whether a resolution from the County would be issued. That vote is scheduled to take place October 4th, if not before. Notably, this public information is no longer available thanks to YouTube, whose censorship efforts raise serious questions about due political process and the freedom of information.
The erasure of a critical vote dat belies a much more serious offense: interference in the election process at the County level and the will of the people, at the expense of right political process. The precinct committeemen express their desire or will to the County Committeeman, who in turn represent the will of the county at statewide meetings with the committeemen of other counties. Those county committeemen also express the desire of the people through their votes and send a state committeeman to a national meeting of state committeemen. These men in turn represent their individual states with what the people at each level of representation have deemed is appropriate action.
The Lexington County Republican Party called for a forensic audit at the September 13th Executive committee meeting. A social media giant decided that is not information citizens should see or know about. Is this censorship?
This chain is how representative government works. For YouTube, or any IT giant, to take it upon themselves to censor Gov. McMaster’s remarks, or those of any state governor, is interference in the Governor’s ability to govern the state, especially to the benefit of its constituents. YouTube’s actions constitute interference with the will of the people and their abilities to observe what has taken place and consider the number and the content of the comments made to the public.
Censorship of this magnitude could potentially endanger the people of SC by erasing the Governor’s timely information and rendering any opportunity for its public discussion impossible. Additionally, YouTube’s removal of a live video broadcast of the other topics discussed in a County meeting radically undermines our Republican form of government by removing from the people their ability to process and understand critical information for themselves.
How Long Before Elected Officials Take Action to Stop Censorship?
We must ask, if YouTube can censor a sitting elected governor, is YouTube now seeking to become our governor? Does YouTube now seek to dictate what we see and hear, or even what we think or believe? If not, it certainly has already determined which priorities matter and which don’t. This determination alone is chilling at best and totalitarian at worst.
Censorship of important public information from the Governor and from the will of the people is the genesis of tyranny and totalitarian policies, and even dictatorship and foreign control, and neither must be tolerated.
Thus, this writer calls on the elected representatives in the South Carolina State Legislature and our Congressional representatives to halt Big-Tech censorship in our state and, ultimately, the nation. SC must set a “no-tolerance” example in matters of censorship. A large, corporate IT company that takes taxpayer money and purports to be a public forum cannot be allowed to censor independent news sources from publishing, broadcasting, or in any way disseminating information to the public. To do so is to contravene the free spirit upon which even these platforms was supposedly established.
Additionally, Big-Tech must not be allowed to prevent sitting elected officials from being heard by the people, which places the public at risk. To allow such to continue makes the legislature and all who neglect their duty and oath to “protect and defend the Constitution” party to the crime of censorship and in violation of the First Amendment. And, as De Tocqueville concluded, “evil occurs when good men do nothing.”
Michael Reed is Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online, and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found. Please share freely and donate to The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.
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