The University’s of Toronto’s Dr. Jordan B. Peterson turned to famous friends Tuesday after his YouTube account was locked “with no explanation.”
The clinical psychologist who shot to fame in 2016 for opposition to Canada’s “C-16 bill” — critics called him “transphobic” for his refusal to use genderless pronouns — said Google is refusing to give him access to his YouTube account. The timing coincides with attempts to upload a new installment of his biblical lecture series, which has garnered over 1 million views.
“Google is refusing to reinstate my account. Violation of terms of service. No explanation given,” he began a series of tweets. “@joerogan @RubinReport @scrowder @SamHarrisOrg I’ve been locked out of YouTube & my personal account: violation of terms of service. I cannot post new YouTube videos, including last week’s Biblical lecture. No access. At least — for now — the videos are still up.”
Dr. Peterson’s appearances on podcast star Joe Rogan’s channel, along with Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” and Steven Crowder’s “Louder with Crowder,” have also tallied millions of views.
Mr. Rogan immediately shared the news with his 3.45 million followers and Mr. Rubin demanded YouTube “fix this ASAP.”
The professor, who often speaks on the dangers of moral relativism, has a loyal following — particularly among young men — who cheer his calls to embrace personal responsibility, virtue and truth.
“It seems to me that the ability to post video lectures online, with the ability to reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of people (and for that to happen in a more or less permanent form) is a revolution equivalent to the Gutenberg press,” his Patreon page says. “I now have had more than six million views on my YouTube channel. That’s incomparably more people than have bought my book or read my papers. So maybe that’s the real future of education — particularly given what the universities have done with the social sciences and humanities. Why not educate everyone?”
Google is refusing to reinstate my account. Violation of terms of service. No explanation given. https://t.co/sLOxXgw7De
— Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) August 1, 2017
Dr. Peterson’s account was eventually reinstated as news of the shutdown spread across social media platforms, although no reason was given by Google.
“My gmail/YT account is back. Why was it shut down? Who knows Why did they refuse to reinstate it? Who knows? Why did they turn it back on?” he tweeted.
“I’ve had that account for the last, say, 15 years,” he told The Daily Caller. “All of my correspondence is in that account. It’s hundreds of thousands of emails from people all over the world. But the fact that they reviewed it and then decided that my account is not eligible to be reinstated indicates to me either that this is quite a curious mistake or that there’s something that’s political going on that is associated with censorship.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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