Libertarian pseudo-philosopher turned far-right political pundit Stefan Molyneux received two strikes on his YouTube account for violating community content guidelines, but after fans pressured the site, YouTube reversed the strikes and apologized.
Molyneux is one of the leading purveyors of far-right indoctrination on YouTube, where he hosts thousands of videos bashing “political correctness,” espousing scientific racism, fearmongering about immigrants, and engaging in rampant misogyny. He also peddles white nationalist tropes about racial replacement and has promoted the idea of “white genocide” happening in South Africa, which is not happening.
Molyneux is also an alleged cult leader who has used his Free Domain Radio site to encourage people to isolate themselves from their families, a process he dubbed “deFOOing.” According to allegations from former Free Domain Radio members, Molyneux has coerced his inner-circle supporters into divulging their personal grievances, convinced them that their frustrations stem from their parents, and eventually encouraged them to abandon their families.
On Twitter, Molyneux said the strikes against his videos came “likely as a result of a mass flagging campaign,” citing no proof of that assumption, and urged his fans to contact YouTube “and alert them to this injustice.” He writes in a statement attached to a tweet, “It’s not too late to save philosophy.” Molyneux claimed one video that received a strike was called “The Death of White Males” and the other featured an interview with the zealous hate monger Katie Hopkins.
Within 24 hours, my @YouTube channel has received two community guidelines strikes - likely as a result of a mass flagging campaign - and is now on the verge of total deletion.
Please respectfully contact @TeamYouTube and alert them to this injustice. pic.twitter.com/jSxOouVg9S
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) August 15, 2018
The outrage campaign was further prodded by conservative pundits Michelle Malkin, self-described "New Right" personality Mike Cernovich, alt-right philosopher Theodore “Vox Day” Beale, and the right-wing outlet Big League Politics.
YouTube community guidelines state that if “the primary purpose of the content is to incite hatred against a group of people solely based on their ethnicity,” then it is forbidden. The site policies also offer protections for protected classes, including gender, religion, and sexual orientation and it could easily be argued, based on the abusive behavior of large swaths of Molyneux’s fan base online, that much of his work has successfully ginned up hate against racial minorities and immigrants, transgender people, and Muslims.
It took less than 7 hours for YouTube to reverse course.
Update: both videos are now reinstated and the strike resolved. Thanks again for raising this!
— Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) August 15, 2018
