American identity is founded on the understanding that freedom of speech is a fundamental American freedom and human right, and in today’s world there is no place where this right should be protected more than the digital public square we call “social media.” As journalists, we believe that social media companies should be held to higher standards since they were founded on the principles of free speech and rely completely on profiting off of our data, information, and audience. The reality is that true journalism is under attack now more than ever for exposing truths that the empire has attempted to keep buried for so long. From Julian Assange’s imprisonment, to Edward Snowden’s exile, Orwell’s warnings are becoming reality. Journalism as he said is “printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.”

As we continue to defend the fundamental rights of tens of thousands of Americans in our online community, while simultaneously attempting to reach hundreds of thousands through education, outreach, and reform efforts online and in our community in Los Angeles, we’ve ourselves been censored and demonetized by YouTube and its extension Google. Along with hundreds of other channels, YouTube released a statement saying we had “harmful content” but did not give any specifics as to what that meant. YouTube has long demonetized our videos dealing with imperialism, the national security state and exposing the corrupt establishment, but attempting to shut us out by hurting our pockets and stopping our audience from supporting us is a step toward fascism. Neither YouTube nor Google are the arbiters of truth, that is for the public to decide. The only solution to bad speech is more speech, allowing Big tech, politicians and Silicon Valley to dictate our thoughts is not only unconstitutional, it’s dangerous. We are protesting the bolstering of the police state through big tech and demanding the voices of the people, especially journalists be heard freely.