Marxist media outlet Novara Media had its YouTube channel temporarily deleted on Tuesday. A statement put out by Novara at 11:40 said the action had been carried out by YouTube without 'warning or explanation'. Less than three hours later Novara reported that the channel had been reinstated 'following a deluge of support from across the political spectrum'.
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| Novara's Michael Walker |
Novara has an impressive following on YouTube with almost 170,000 subscribers. It has a similar number of followers on its Twitter account, with smaller followings on Facebook and Instagram. Novara's impressive social media counter-campaign against YouTube's ban attracted support from far and wide - not just from far left Labour MPs such as Richard Burgon, John McDonnell and Nadia Whittome, but also from opponents such as Conservative MP David Davis, Reclaim's Laurence Fox and broadcasters Julia Hartley-Brewer and Maajid Nawaz. The latter had previously sought legal action against Novara's co-founder, but still found it within himself to condemn YouTube's action. Even The Spectator's Turnpike column expressed 'solidarity'.
However, while the centre and right appeared to unite with the left against big tech censorship, it had been duly noted that Novara itself did not express feelings of solidarity when big tech came for their opponents. The bulk of the criticism was levelled at Novara's head of video, Gary McQuiggin, who deplored YouTube's action in the following tweet.
Critics then deluged McQuiggin and his comrades Ash Sarkar, Michael Walker and Bastani with a screenshot of something he had tweeted last year...
McQuiggin has since deleted this tweet, but fortunately the internet doesn't forget.
Novara's double standards can also be applied to Ash Sarkar who has previously defended cancel culture and was also one of the main organisers of the protests against President Trump's visit to the UK in 2018. She also welcomed his ban from Twitter, telling Unherd: "It’s a good thing that Twitter is able to just kick him off".
It appears that censorship is perfectly acceptable for the left when it's the right that is on the receiving end or things they simply don't like or agree with.
Click below for a clip in which Sarkar is asked about cancel culture for an Australian TV show.
Author Douglas Murray was among those who took exception to Novara's double standard, writing on Twitter: "These communists didn’t seem to have a problem when Big Tech came for Milo Yiannopolous, Katie Hopkins etc. Because the hate-mongers at barely-known ‘Novara media’ thought Big Tech only came for their counterparts. Now it’s their turn. Funny old world".
Aaron Bastani responded directly to Murray with the following astonishing tweet.
That is quite a statement coming from a communist and one which appears to be ignore established history altogether. Even his quote from Rosa Luxemburg is a misnomer. The Polish Marxist made a number of quotes relating to freedom and democracy, but that apparently did not stop her from supporting the 1918 November Revolution which sought to overthrow the German government.
Like Bastani, Luxemburg never got a taste of state power. We all know what happens when communists take power, regardless of how they get there or what they said prior to the event. Freedom becomes mute, democracy dies.
That is the reality of communism. The history of one-party communist states such as the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea does not lie. The same cannot be said for Bastani.
