Candace Owens Slams YouTube Over Anti-Trans Video Ban: 'I Will Not Lie'

Candace Owens has hit out at YouTube after the video-sharing platform demonetized a number of her posts in which the conservative commentator violated policies regarding misgendering trans people.

In recent months, the number of large U.S. brands being targeted with boycott calls has grown dramatically, as a host of different companies unveil products supporting Pride Month, which takes place every June. Companies supporting the LGBTQ+ community outside of Pride Month have also faced backlash from conservatives.

A host of prominent conservative voices lead the charge against the companies after Bud Light collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an April 1 social media post. The debate has continued to rage on, with several entities facing scrutiny for their support of LGBTQ+ people.

Owens, who is an outspoken critic of transgender identities, last week said on her eponymous podcast that YouTube had been demonetizing videos that failed to respect the preferred pronouns of others in their content.

In a new episode shared on her Twitter account on Monday, Owens said that "if you properly gender someone you can have your [YouTube] account hit. If that person does not feel that they are that gender that day. So reality does not matter on YouTube, people's feelings about reality does, which is a shocking thing."

Owens then said that if she as a Black women said that she felt as though she were "a Mexican man" and somebody posted a video disputing her assertion, "YouTube would see that video and they would take it down. They would say that you have violated some nebulous, opaque, unclear policy about hateful conduct. It's hateful for you to acknowledge reality, and that is a very scary place to be in."

She went on to state that the "medical establishment is very much divided" when it comes to transgender identities. "As just one example, in Sweden and in Finland, they've completely stopped giving out hormone blockers to children. So you would think that would be relevant for parents to hear if they are considering putting their children on hormone blockers.

"YouTube says no, because the only thing you can say is that children must be affirmed to whatever they think and you cannot question the drugs or the methods, or why it is that the United States of America seems to the be the country that is pushing this the most—not even in Europe."

"Right now, the prevailing narrative is that you have to lie to keep your living on YouTube," she added. "In this circumstance—and especially because it is so insidious and refers to children and seems to be wanting to place these 'values' on children—I will stand up to it. Because I'm a mom first.

"Being able to tell the truth seems like a most basic act of courage that I can do to ensure my children's future in this country that I love, but which I do not recognize. I don't recognize this country. I will not lie for a living. That's what I want to say to YouTube, as they reassess my account, and as I am banned for this month. I want them to know that you cannot compel me to lie for a living. I'm not a buck that can be broken."

Newsweek has contacted a representative of YouTube via email for comment.

Michael Aciman, a Google spokesperson, said that the company has blocked advertisements on "several videos on Candace Owens' channel for violating our monetization policies, including those against hateful and derogatory content," according to NBC News.

Under its guidelines on hateful and derogatory content, YouTube may prohibit ads from running on a video that "promotes discrimination, disparages, or humiliates an individual or group of people." Its guidelines on misgendering are currently not publicly listed.

Aciman also explained the policy could be applied against videos that "may include deliberate deadnaming or misgendering of transgender individuals." Deadnaming is the act of referring to a transgender or nonbinary person by the name they had before transitioning.

Last week, when Owens spoke out against YouTube on her podcast, she said: "Right now we are being squeezed by YouTube. This is the one thing that YouTube wants us to capitulate to, it is the gender movement. They want us to look at a little girl and say, 'No, you are a little boy,' and they want us to respect people's pronouns, which to me... is they are asking us to tell a lie right there. Saying, if you want to make money on this platform, you have to agree to this lie."

"How is it that so many corporations and so many platforms and so many individuals with power are all pushing this exact same lie that represents such a small minority of the population?" Owens, who has previously advocated for discrimination against transgender people, went on. "This isn't about love. It can't be about love, and it can't be about acceptance.

"Don't be so stupid as to believe it's about love, and it's about acceptance, and that Target really cares about a little child being feeling loved and accepted for every single word and phrase that they say. It is about something that is much more dangerous, something that is much more sinister."

"It is going to take people being courageous and people having the ability to realize that we must put firm lines in the sand," Owens added. "And if we allow them to violate this one, which is our children made susceptible to these lies, then they will have everything. There will be nothing left for us to stand up to. And I say that from my heart as a mother, who is just astonished at how far they have taken this ideology and how quickly and how deadly serious they are and threatening individuals that don't want to stand with it."