YouTube downgraded pro-life videos in its search results this month after a pro-abortion writer complained about a lack of pro-abortion content.
April Glaser, an abortion activist and author at Slate, wrote a critical piece about the online media giant last week after she discovered that the top search results for “abortion” on YouTube were pro-life videos. She described the videos as a “horrifying mix of gore and dangerous misinformation.”
Soon afterward, YouTube responded by pushing pro-life videos down lower on the search results and pro-abortion videos up to the top. The downgraded videos included a former abortionist testifying to Congress about the gruesome, violent ways in which unborn babies are aborted, Live Action’s abortion procedure videos, a video of conservative speaker/writer Ben Shapiro defending the pro-life position, and another of a woman speaking about how deeply she regretted aborting her unborn baby, according to The Daily Wire.
These videos were extremely popular, each with millions of views on YouTube, but “YouTube changed the results after I asked,” Glaser bragged.
“Before I raised the issue with YouTube late last week, the top search results for ‘abortion’ on the site were almost all anti-abortion—and frequently misleading,” she continued, claiming one video showed “misleading animations [of] a fetus that looks like a sentient child in the uterus.”
Now, people who type “abortion” into its search engine will see pro-abortion videos at the top, including one by Vice called “The Fake Abortion Clinics of America.” Others are stories of women bragging about their abortions or popular media figures attacking pro-life laws.
Live Action, which produced a popular, medically accurate educational series about the different abortion methods, criticized Glaser and YouTube for censoring its videos.
SIGN THE PETITION! Attention Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube: Stop Censoring Pro-Lifers
So you pressured @YouTube to hide our educational, scientifically accurate videos – but claim to be “pro-choice?”
— Live Action (@LiveAction) December 22, 2018
Here are the videos, narrated by a former abortionist, that April says are ”dangerous misinformation.”https://t.co/Ie36yhvhCx
— Live Action (@LiveAction) December 23, 2018
Hank Berrien, a writer for Daily Wire, described the move as an effort to hide the truth about abortion.
“Wouldn’t want women to know what actually happens, would we?” he wrote.
Media blackouts are nothing new to the pro-life movement. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have been doing this sort of thing for years. Earlier this fall, makers of the “Gosnell” film said Facebook censored their ads. The Susan B. Anthony List also accused Facebook of censoring its election ads just prior to the November mid-terms.
Live Action has said Twitter repeatedly censored its ads. Founder Lila Rose said the social media site blocked their ability to advertise and told them to change information on their websites if they want to start advertising again. In 2015, Facebook also refused to allow Live Action to advertise one of its stories because “the image or video thumbnail may shock or evoke a negative response from viewers.” The image was of baby Eli Thompson who was born without a nose.
Facebook became a subject of national controversy in 2016 after some of its workers admitted that they suppressed conservative news stories in favor of liberal ones. LifeNews.com, which is the leading pro-life news website on the Internet and the only one specifically devoted to pro-life issues, has long believed that Facebook has been suppressing its traffic.
