Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) threw his support behind Stephen Crowder on Thursday, calling YouTube decision’s to no longer permit the conservative commentator, who has been accused of online harassment, to profit from his videos “ridiculous.”
“YouTube is not the Star Chamber — stop playing God & silencing those voices you disagree with. This will not end well,” wrote Cruz to his 3.3 million followers.
{mosads}In a subsequent tweet, Cruz broached provocative comments made by TBS’s Samantha Bee and actor Jim Carrey as examples of what he says is a double standard.
“This is nuts. YouTube needs to explain why @scrowder is banned, but @iamsambee (‘Ivanka is a feckless c***.’) & @JimCarrey (‘look at my pretty picture of Gov. Kay Ivey being murdered in the womb’) aren’t. No coherent standard explains it. Here’s an idea: DON’T BLACKLIST ANYBODY,” he wrote.
“Update on our continued review–we have suspended this channel’s monetization,” YouTube said in the tweet on Wednesday announcing Crowder will not be able to make money from ad revenue on his videos. “We came to this decision because a pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies.”
The announcement came one day after the company stated he wasn’t in violation of any of its rules.
Social media analytics website Social Blade estimates Crowder could have been generating as much $1.29 million annually from his YouTube channel.
Cruz has appeared on Crowder’s Blaze Media program, “Louder with Crowder,” most recently in November 2018.