JT Chapman

Yesterday morning I released a video titled "The CIA is a Terrorist Organization." Unsurprisingly, it was instantly demonetized. Fine. I'm used to that. But what followed was both intensely disappointing and, honestly, fairly alarming.

After the video went live, I got the usual comments. "First," "Hi," "Clicked as soon as I saw the notification," etc. Views were slightly disappointing, but par for the course on a demonetized video. Later in the day, some of my patrons reported something odd.

The video no longer appeared in their subscription feed. Not only that, but I started getting comments saying subscribers hadn't been notified, and that they had to come to my channel to see that I had a new video. But that wasn't even the most unusual.

People also started reporting that they could no longer find my video in search results, even if they searched the exact title of the video. Very odd, especially considering a video *reacting to* my video showed up in the search results. I confirmed this personally.

This was an obvious lie, and an insulting one at that. I've been uploading videos to YouTube for five years. I've produced over 200 videos for the platform. I know how it works. This has never happened, and the fact that the video *did appear at first* proves YT's response a lie.

So they shadow banned my video. So what? It's their platform. I would agree with this if they were simply transparent with their actions. They didn't age-gate my video. They didn't strike it. They just quietly tried to suppress it. Luckily, people noticed.

If they had just let the video be, it would have gotten maybe 150k views, and that would be the end of it. But now, thanks to their shady behavior and incompetence, I'm gonna make some noise. Let's briefly discuss how YouTube handles "controversial" videos.

A few months ago I uploaded a video about police brutality. It showed explicit acts of violence by the police, and it was understandably age-gated. The video was appropriate only for older audiences, but did not break any of YouTube's terms and conditions.

That video earned me a visit from the DHS, who asked me about "Anti-American sentiment" in my videos. That was the first time I realized, wow, I guess people really are monitoring what we say and are willing to try to intimidate us, even if what we say is objectively true.

Remember, that video was only age-gated. Why would my video on the CIA, which did not show any explicit violence, receive a harsher treatment? And why would YouTube decline to provide justification for that decision? The easy answer is incompetence.

YouTube is notorious for offering exactly zero transparency in their dealings with creators. But, funnily enough, I mentioned in the new video that Google is one of many large tech companies to have a lucrative contract with the CIA.

The fact that the video went live, subscribers received notifications, it appeared in search results, and then only *later* did it disappear without explanation, leads me to believe that someone made a complaint on the behalf of a certain intelligence agency.

Fine. It's just one video I won't make any money from. The lost revenue isn't my concern. My concern is one that was sparked by the DHS visit, and solidified by the quiet banning of my CIA episode. Everything in the CIA video is public knowledge. I didn't reveal anything new.

If simply reporting the facts (many from as far back as the 1950s!) Is enough for the CIA (or whomever) to demand a video be hidden, what does that say about the myth of free speech? Again, if YouTube were simply open about their reasoning, I'd be fine.

All they have to say is "our contract with the CIA requires us to suppress criticism of their agency." That would be acceptable to me. But the fact that they're trying to be covert about it is a big red flag.

As I explained in the video, the CIA has been running a propaganda campaign inside the US for at least the past 50 years, probably much longer. This is not speculation. This is the point where it becomes not about my video, but about the state of private media in the US.

Since very nearly every media operation in the country is privately owned, they all have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. That is, keeping the population reasonably happy with the state of affairs in the US. Patriotism, exceptionalism, the whole nine yards.

This is called manufacturing consent. The CIA fabricated the intel that led us into Iraq, not to mention Korea and Vietnam. By keeping the populace placated with "justification" for everything the US does, we are effectively propagandized into compliance.

To my fellow Americans, we need to be aware of the extent to which we've been subjected to propaganda and blatant falsehood. Our country, and the CIA, as I explained in the video, is guilty of some of the most heinous crimes in history. The rest of the world knows this.

In a bit of dark cosmic humor, the same day my video went live a top Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated. The CIA had done confidential reporting on the victim back in 2007. The US ordered his assets frozen in 2008. No matter who pulled the trigger, the US was involved.

What right does our country have to murder people in other countries? Can you imagine if Iranian operatives came over to the US and murdered one of our scientists? The country would be turned to glass. And yet, when the US commits these crimes, nothing.

The CIA, and the US in general, has caused countless deaths through crippling sanctions, coups, fostering civil unrest, and lying our way into unjustifiable wars. This needs to end. No country has the right to meddle the way the US does.

This thread has already gone on too long, but to sum up: be aware of the fact that free speech is a myth, we are not immune to propaganda, and that big corporations are complicit in helping suppress freedom and democracy around the world.