President Andrés Manuel López Obrador attacked the YouTube platform for withdrawing one of his morning conferences for violating personal data protection and harassment and cyberbullying policies.
Last Thursday, the YouTube platform forced to eliminate the portion of the conference on Thursday, February 22 in which the president released the phone number of a journalist from The New York Times.
After violating policies on harassment and cyberbullying, the YouTube platform said, it first took down the video and later allowed it to be uploaded without the fragment in which López Obrador broadcasts the journalist’s number.
Por censura, YouTube nos bajó el video de la conferencia de prensa del jueves 22 de febrero, pues, según ellos, “infringe las normas de la comunidad“. Es una actitud prepotente y autoritaria. Están en plena decadencia. La estatua de la libertad se ha convertido en un símbolo… pic.twitter.com/Dpbn4tJBfr
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 26, 2024
YouTube argued that its policies on “harassment and cyberbullying strictly prohibit content that reveals someone’s personally identifiable information, including their phone number.”
However, President López Obrador expressed his position regarding this episode and closed his message with a quote from Don Quixote, about the meaning of freedom.
On February 22, AMLO read in the National Palace a questionnaire that The New York Times sent to the presidential spokesperson, Jesús Ramírez, about a report related to alleged links between the president’s “allies” and drug traffickers.
When presenting the questions, with which the Times sought to have a position in the Presidency, AMLO disclosed the personal telephone number of the head of the American newspaper’s office in Mexico, Natalie Kitroeff.
TYT Newsroom