Author Censored for Coronavirus Views

By S.T. Patrick

Researcher and globally popular conspiracy theorist and author David Icke is no stranger to feeling the hook of censorship. In early April, after Icke posted videos linking the spread of the coronavirus to 5G wireless technology, YouTube banned all conspiracy videos linking the two. At the start of May, YouTube had deleted Icke’s entire video channel.

“Now any content that disputes the existence or transmission of Covid-19, as described by the WHO [World Health Organization] and local health authorities is in violation of YouTube policies,” a YouTube spokesperson told the BBC. “This includes conspiracy theories which claim that the symptoms are caused by 5G.”

Icke has been banned before for his controversial theories. In 2017, he found himself banned in Australia, a country which labeled him a “Holocaust denier.” Anyone who has followed Icke knows that the Holocaust—the deaths of large numbers of prisoners in World War II German labor camps—is not his forte, nor is it something about which he spends a great deal of time theorizing. He echoed some questions that have been raised by historians over decades and, for that, he has been pushed into the molten bin of “Holocaust denial.”

Icke is more a raconteur of the globalist agenda conspiracies. His first breakthrough work, and arguably his most popular historical work still today, was 1995’s And the Truth Shall Set You Free. He has since dealt with the secrets of the British royals in 1999’s The Biggest Secret and he has been one of the harshest critics of the official 9/11 narrative, as he documented in Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster (2002) and his newest book, The Trigger: The Lie That Changed the World. While some of his exposés have been spectacular, and while his talks sell out large auditoriums in the world’s urban centers, he is often mocked for his theory that shape-shifting interdimensional reptilians are real.

Censorship on social media has been real and rampant for those challenging the establishment line on major issues. Facebook has banned (for varying reasons and durations) Alex Jones (Info-Wars), Louis Farrakhan, Milo Yiannopoulos, Laura Loomer, and Paul Joseph Watson. While it is now easier than ever to get a message heard, it’s becoming simultaneously more difficult to stay afloat on social media while proclaiming those messages. This has bothered many writers who see the inherent problem of censorship, even writers who have no interest in Icke, Jones, or the other targets.

Independent journalist Caitlin Johnstone wrote, “I know next to nothing about David Icke, and I have done exactly zero research into his views for this article. For all I know he’s every bit the raving lunatic the narrative managers say he is. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re seeing a consistent and accelerating pattern of powerful plutocratic institutions collaborating with the U.S.-centralized empire to control what ideas people around the world are permitted to share with each other, and it’s a very unsafe trajectory.”

Former Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi tweeted, “The people who want to add a censorship regime to a health crisis are more dangerous and more stupid by leaps and bounds than a president who tells people to inject disinfectant.”

Matthew Lesh at the “CapX” website wrote, “It is our responsibility to make the case for free speech to the tech giants as well to governments. They are inundated with demands for censorship, both from governments and civil society. But they do claim to believe in free expression. We should hold them accountable for the values they profess.”

That’s really the issue at hand here. It isn’t the beliefs of Icke or the frothing and crying of Info-Wars or the religious criticisms of Louis Farrakhan. It’s censorship. We should be equally angered and concerned if YouTube or Facebook banned Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, or Bill Maher. Americans have the right to demand access to the full scope and spectrum of an argument, even if and especially if it’s nonsense. Anything less inhibits our own mental processing of issues, ideas, and possibilities. Freedom—real freedom—is inherently tied to opposing censorship because you can never be free when the state—or corporatist arms of the state—limits your ability to seek truth.

S.T. Patrick holds degrees in both journalism and social studies education. He spent 10 years as an educator and now hosts the “Midnight Writer News Show.” His email is [email protected]. He is also an occasional contributor to TBR history magazine and the current managing editor of Deep Truth Journal (DTJ), a new conspiracy-focused publication available from the AFP Online Store.