Google-owned YouTube recently announced that it is expanding its COVID-specific censorship practices to now include all “medical misinformation.” According to the new guidelines, only medical information that comports with what is currently approved by local health authorities or the World Health Organization will be deemed appropriate to post.

That which runs counter to the accepted narrative will be subject to censorship and removal according to three broadly and ill-defined categorizations of “medical misinformation.” Those categories of supposed “misinformation” are as follows: prevention misinformation, treatment misinformation, and denial misinformation.

YouTube’s new policy implicitly advises self-censorship, as it states: “Don’t post content on YouTube if it contains any of the [above information].”

We’re old enough to remember the compromised history of the WHO during the coronavirus pandemic and the misinformation the UN organization was guilty of pushing — as were the CDC and Dr. Anthony “The Science” Fauci himself. That included misinformation such as that the COVID vaccines prevented infection or the spread of COVID and that the Wuhan lab leak was a quack conspiracy theory. One would have thought this would have caused YouTube to back off its medical information suppression efforts. Of course, that would only be the case if those running YouTube were actually concerned about maintaining a platform where truth can be discovered and error exposed; a platform that believes in free speech.

However, as investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger observed, “YouTube isn’t a social media platform, it’s a propaganda platform.” Exactly.

But Google isn’t the only Big Tech company ramping up content censorship. Meta-owned Facebook is still outsourcing its censorship policing to “neutral” “fact-checking” organizations in an effort to claim Facebook itself is not engaged in any efforts to suppress content. Well, as we’ve noted ad nauseam, these “fact-checking” outfits are anything but neutral; rather, they are almost all leftist organizations that Meta is funding to suppress conservative content on Facebook.

One such “fact-checking” outfit is the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), hired by Meta to the tune of $740,000 a year. RMIT is responsible for blocking and deplatforming a number of Australian journalists — of course, all in the name of preventing “misinformation” or for some other dubious reason.

Elon Musk recently weighed in by calling for transparency: “Facebook is manipulating the public almost everywhere on Earth. That is why they won’t open source their algorithm.”

Speaking of Musk, for his buyout of Twitter, now known as X, the billionaire entrepreneur repeatedly expressed his desire to ensure the social media platform would serve as a beacon for free speech. Unfortunately, it appears that beacon isn’t shining so brightly lately.

Musk recently touted what amounts to a “fairer” censorship. Concerned over advertisement dollars, Musk is apparently seeking to assuage the concerns of advertisers who don’t want to be associated with “problematic” posts, and so he therefore is willing to engage in censorship of certain subjects or terms — it’s just that he will also censor leftists. He announced that the term “cis” would be banned from the platform, as he declared it to be considered a slur. He’s pretty much right about that.

Even so, Musk will compromise with the Left by enforcing its “preferred pronouns” rules in exchange for censoring certain words conservatives may find offensive. But conservatives aren’t asking for censorship of anyone. We care about the fundamental principle of freedom of speech on a public platform.

The fact of the matter is, Big Tech censorship will only get worse, as upholding the narrative matters more than contending for the truth.