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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n
June 4, 2024<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Washington, D.C. \u2014\u00a0Gun Owners of America<\/a>\u00a0(GOA) issued the following statements after YouTube announced a formal change in their policies towards firearms related content:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cRestricting access to adults only\u2014for content that depicts wholly legal and constitutionally-protected activity\u2014is wrong, and it aims to push a sinister narrative to minors that firearms are evil,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>said Erich Pratt, GOA\u2019s Senior Vice President.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIn turn, as younger generations come of age, they will not question or push back on further violations of our Second Amendment rights.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAlvin 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,\u201d\u00a0<\/em>said Aidan Johnston, GOA\u2019s Director of Federal Affairs.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cCongress 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 it\u2019s White House Office of Gun Control was weaponized to force the censorship of Second Amendment content.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Background:\u00a0<\/strong>This week, YouTube and parent company Google announced plans to\u00a0change their policy on firearms related content \u2013 effective June 18th<\/a>. Under the new policy, which will be retroactive and apply to all existing content on the platform, the following will apply:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In April, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg\u00a0sent\u00a0a letter<\/a>\u00a0to 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This letter came on the heels of Media Matters\u00a0publishing<\/a>\u00a0an anti-gun propaganda piece attacking YouTube and certain content the biased \u201cmedia\u201d outlet deemed unfavorable. Additionally, in May of 2023, the anti-gun group Everytown\u00a0published an article<\/a>\u00a0highlighting\u00a0anti-gun research\u00a0about YouTube\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0firearms content from the Tech Transparency Project, which was a key citation in DA Bragg\u2019s letter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 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\u2014which runs a\u00a0YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0with over 175,000 subscribers and counting\u2014 will continue to push back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over two million members and activists. For more information, visit\u00a0GOA\u2019s Press Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n