London Mayor candidate plasters YouTube HQ with free-speech posters in censorship row

LONDON, UK. March 22nd, 2024 - London Mayor candidate Brian Rose has sparked a censorship row with YouTube after plastering the media giant’s London HQ with free-speech messages.

 

Rose, who has made freedom of speech one of his key manifesto topics for the May 2 election, launched his raid on YouTube’s King’s Cross building last Friday (March 15).

 

He managed to stick up several posters reading ‘Free speech matters’, ‘Say no to censorship’ and ‘Be more Elon’, in reference to the outspoken owner of X before YouTube staff intervened.

 

Rose said: "I know first-hand how censorship can affect people and I know first-hand how much power a platform such as YouTube has over everyone who uses it.

 

"I was deplatformed by YouTube last year and, at a stroke, my business was put at risk.

 

"I had done nothing illegal and yet YouTube was able to freeze me out of my own channel, arbitrarily and without having to explain what was happening and why.

 

"Platforms such as YouTube hold great power over all their users, and make a great deal of money from those users, and yet they are not held to account for their abuses."

 

Rose wants to make London a global centre of digital excellence and key to that will be more effective safeguards to protect users from censorship, as well as protecting platforms themselves from pressure to censor their customers.

 

He has previously warned of the dangers from tech giants acting as judge, jury and executioner, all while making billions from their platforms.

 

Rose said: "What I am fighting against here is a clear violation of human rights, an abuse of power that allows global mega-brands to crush the digital freedoms of the very people they rely on to make their vast profits.

 

"London – and the world – deserves better and, as Mayor, I will leverage my powers to work with the tech giants to ensure our capital is a best-in-class example of how we can embrace technology and, at the same time, protect our hard-won freedoms."