Media censorship in France: the state wants to blow up Sud Radio's YouTube channel, which has 300,000 subscribers
Is freedom of expression living its last hours? It would be a bit of a stretch to say yes. However, what is certain is that in the near future, we risk falling into an Orwellian universe where the single thought will be imposed by a right-thinking doxa which will not hesitate to rank in the box of “conspirators”. all those who will not think like her.
For the moment, the debate on media censorship is of little interest to high-level researchers and intellectuals. Perhaps the latter, too, are afraid that good thinking will definitely nail them down. In any case, there is an urgent need to react because, at this rate, millions of voices risk being extinguished for good.
Indeed, the whole world was taken in cold when in January 2021, against all expectations, the Twitter platform announced the definitive closure of Donald Trump's account in full exercise of his mandate. By blowing up the channel of the 46th President of the United States, the freedom of expression of more than 80 million subscribers has been openly violated.
Since then, the giants of the net, who have established themselves as a thought police without any mandate from the people, have normalized this anti-democratic practice which, until now, was the prerogative of the totalitarian Chinese communist regime. Now it is in the heart of the West that this is happening and there is cause for concern.
France is no longer left out. In this country where the state is waging a real war against hate content, several platforms risk disappearing in the near future. And the damage is already there. The latest victim of this censorship is the prestigious media France Soir, whose YouTube account has been definitively closed by the American giant, thus blowing up more than 300,000 subscribers.
And the giants of the web, now masters of the world and enjoying total impunity, do not intend to stop. Because, after France Soir, it is now another medium (and not the least) which is targeted: Sud Radio. In any case, this is the exclusive revelation made by Capital.fr which, in an article published on April 9, mentions the existence of an email sent by YouTube to Patrick Roger, director of the station.
The content of the email still remains a mystery, but according to the source, YouTube does not appreciate at all the media's dissenting editorial line which, in recent months, gives voice to personalities in the scientific world who not only question decisions made by health authorities and sometimes vigorously attack vaccines. Among the controversial personalities already invited by the radio station, are: Professor Christia Perronne or Professor Didier Raoult.
For the moment, Sud Radio has been notified. And YouTube is not kidding. This would mean that if personalities such as Christian Perronne or Didier Raoult continue to have their platform in this media, the American platform will proceed without warning to the closure of the channel which proudly announced its 300,000 subscribers at the end of last March, becoming thus the 5th radio station in France behind France Inter , RTL , Europe 1 and SkyRock .
It is therefore obvious that freedom of expression is clearly in danger because until proven guilty, neither Perronne nor Raoult have violated the rules of ethics. Their only fault is to have called into question the management of the pandemic as well as certain decisions taken at the highest level of the State, which is quite normal in a Democracy.
Dare to say it. YouTube did not act alone. The platform has certainly acted on pressure from the French state. Indeed, it should be noted that in the case of France Soir , shortly before the channel was closed by YouTube, the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, had openly requested that the IPG (Political and General Information) certificate of the media be reviewed. If Bachelot dares to make such a statement on Twitter, it is because she knows she has the support of Emmanuel Macron.
As for Sud Radio , it would be risky to attribute the threats addressed to the channel to the State which, thus, would have put pressure on the American giant to eliminate from the public debate one of the most powerful radios of the French media sphere. However, it would not surprise anyone if the state was behind.
Indeed, since the abject assassination of Samuel Paty, a real war has been unleashed by the state to eliminate all the media that propagate hatred on social networks with the sole aim of inflating their audience and making money. . In the age of social networks where billions of content proliferate daily, this war is just and must be welcomed.
However, it should in no way be used to muzzle dissenting voices or to eliminate from public debate those whose only fault is to think otherwise. All in all, we are in Democracy and that is what differentiates France from totalitarian regimes where journalists are hanged or slaughtered for daring to challenge the state.
Trump lost his 88 million subscribers overnight, France Soir has definitely disappeared from YouTube and tomorrow it will probably be the turn of Sud Radio and all the media who want to bring another story to the people in a context where it no longer has confidence in its official media which are engaged in a real propaganda operation to smoke the citizens.
Freedom of speech is dying and it is our duty to stand up to defend it before it is too late.
- Source : Sheikh Dieng
