The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald slammed YouTube for its decision to no longer permit conservative commentator Steven Crowder to monetize his content, though he called the controversial commentator a “contemptuous cretin.”
But he said YouTube’s actions were a defense of “the mob and the powerful” during an appearance Thursday night on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
{mosads}Vox correspondent Carlos Maza has criticized YouTube for not taking further action against Crowder. In a series of tweets last week, Maza detailed the insults directed at him from Crowder, showing video of Crowder calling him a “lispy queer” and the “gay Mexican from Vox,” among other things.
Maza said the slurs amounted to harassment and bullying and violated YouTube’s terms.
YouTube decided to demonetize Crowder’s content, but said it would not take other action because his comments targeting Maza’s ethnicity and sexuality did not violate the platform’s policies against harassment or hate speech.
Supporters of Maza have criticized YouTube for not doing more, while conservatives have rallied around Crowder, arguing YouTube should not have demonetized his content and that it is an example of bias toward conservative voices.
Greenwald is liberal and gay, but also a free speech advocate. He’s also a periodic guest on Fox News and has been a notable skeptic of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“YouTube caved in defense of the powerful,” Greenwald told Carlson. “That’s what they will always do. Defend the mob and the powerful at the expense of those who are marginalized.”
“I find Crowder to be a contemptuous cretin,” he later continued. “I think he is a bully and bigot. He did not just criticize Carlos, he mocked him for being gay and Latino and sent a lot of harassment his way. That’s the point. Censorship advocates want our brains to just go to the first level of, ‘Do we hate their person and are we glad they are being censored?’ “
“In reality, this power to censor was not one they wanted,” The Intercept co-founder also added. “It was one that was foisted upon them largely by journalists who demanded they remove voices from the internet. Imagine going into journalism and begging corporations to silence people.”
Maza wrote on Twitter on May 29 that Crowder’s video made him a “target of ridiculous harassment, and it makes life sort of miserable.”
“These videos makes me a target of ridiculous harassment, and it makes life sort of miserable. I waste a lot of time blocking abusive Crowder fanboys, and this shit derails your mental health,” he adds.
Maza wrote in another tweet on May 30 while sharing Google’s harassment policy that he’s not mad at Crowder, but YouTube.
“That being said, I’m not mad at Crowder,” Maza writes in another tweet. “There will always be monsters in the world. I’m fucking pissed at @YouTube, which claims to support its LGBT creators, and has explicit policies against harassment and bullying.”
Crowder could have been generating as much $1.29 million annually from his YouTube channel, according to estimates by social media analytics website Social Blade.