YouTube has abruptly restored liberal skeptic Naomi Wolf’s DailyClout video channel, after an article in The Epoch Times drew attention to its sudden deletion last week.
Wolf, a co-founder of the DailyClout website, is a widely published journalist and bestselling author of books such as “The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women” (1990) and “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot” (2007). She was an adviser to then-President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign and to then-Vice President Al Gore, both Democrats.
Earlier this summer, Twitter banned Wolf, who has been critical of vaccine passports and media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, as The Epoch Times reported at the time. Twitter said Wolf had disseminated vaccine misinformation in violation of the microblogging website’s policies, a claim she denies.
Wolf said she was deplatformed by Twitter after sharing with 146,000 followers UNC senior researcher Dr. Ralph Baric’s resume, which shows that his work on gain-of-function research had been funded by the federal government, a fact already reported in the media.
The Epoch Times reported last week that the civic-minded, informational DailyClout channel was deleted by YouTube sometime on Aug. 24 after a video was posted that featured Wolf conducting an interview with Leslie Manookian, president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund Inc., a prominent critic of mandatory mask policies in schools.
Around the time the channel disappeared, YouTube sent DailyClout an email advising that a video titled “Dr Naomi Wolf and Leslie Manookian speak about her award-winning documentary ‘The Greater Good,’” had been removed for violating YouTube’s “medical misinformation policy.”
“YouTube doesn’t allow claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO),” stated the email.
Wolf countered that the video was not filled with contentious material. It included information already disseminated by Public Citizen, Axios, and Vanity Fair.
But in an email time-stamped Aug. 26 at 7:47 p.m. ET, YouTube advised Wolf’s website that it had made a mistake and resurrected the video channel.
“We’re pleased to let you know that we’ve recently reviewed your YouTube account, and after taking another look, we can confirm that it is not in violation of our Terms of Service. We have lifted the suspension of your account, and it is once again active and operational,” according to the email, which was obtained by The Epoch Times.
“We’d like to thank you for your patience while we reviewed this case. Our goal is to make sure content doesn’t violate our Community Guidelines so that YouTube can be a safe place for all—and sometimes we make mistakes trying to get it right. We hope you understand, and we’re sorry for any inconvenience or frustration this has caused.”
Wolf told The Epoch Times that while she was glad the channel, which she said features “nerdy, nonpartisan, straight-up public interest reporting,” was restored, she remains worried about YouTube’s future behavior.
