(LifeSiteNews) – Far-left internet giant Google banned conservative educational application Prager University (PragerU) from its app store on the basis of one of Big Tech’s favorite labels for conservative content: “hate speech.”
The brainchild of conservative commentator Dennis Prager, PragerU produces short videos on a wide range of political, cultural, and historical topics geared toward articulating conservative views and correcting popular left-wing misconceptions. On May 14, it published Dear Infidels: A Warning to America, a short documentary about the “rise of anti-American rhetoric and violence in cities and universities,” featuring “first-hand accounts from those who escaped Islamic rule and have come to warn America.”
On June 7, PragerU announced via X that it had been removed from the Google Play Store, allegedly for violating the “Hate Speech policy” with content “asserting that a protected group is inhuman, inferior or worthy of being hated.” The notice does not identify where or how the documentary does so.
BREAKING: @Google removes PragerU app from Play Store for “Hate Speech.”
Help us fight back: https://t.co/LLsc0JruVL pic.twitter.com/R4o1haL2CL
— PragerU (@prageru) June 7, 2024
“According to Google, sharing the stories of a former Palestinian refugee, an Arab Muslim born in Israel, and brave U.S. Navy SEALs who witnessed the horrors of Muslim extremism constitutes ‘hate speech,’” PragerU says. “This is a blatant attempt to silence truth and censor speech.”
This is not the first time left-wing Big Tech platforms have penalized PragerU. In 2017, Prager attempted to sue Google-owned YouTube for falsely labeling hundreds of videos inappropriate for children, though the case was eventually dismissed in 2020. That year, leading social network Facebook restricted the nonprofit based on a left-wing “fact-check” of a video disputing the anthropogenic global warming narrative. In 2021, alternative video platform JW Player bowed to left-wing pressure to drop PragerU without citing a specific reason.
Google, the global leader in online video, web searching, and numerous communication and productivity tools, has long been notorious not only for its strong left-wing bias but for its willingness to use its considerable influence to mold public opinion, including by manipulating its platforms’ various metrics such as search results.
The company also has a history of discriminating against certain content on the basis of political viewpoint on topics such as abortion, gender, COVID-19, climate change, and election integrity, including acting directly against LifeSiteNews on numerous occasions.
In February, media analysis firm AllSides Technologies Inc. found that 63% of Google News search results were from left-wing or left-leaning sources as opposed to just 6% that were right-wing or right-leaning and 16% in the political center. A month later, 16 Republican state attorneys general successfully pressured YouTube to remove “misleading” disclaimers from accurate pro-life videos about abortion pills.