Earlier today we published an article from NRA-ILA about YouTube’s supposed new dedication to free speech and easing of its community guidelines. The op-ed suggests that this easing of censorship was unlikely to extend to firearms content, and on that they’re absolutely correct. It damn sure ain’t!
Just in the last few weeks the Shooting News Weekly channel has lost three perfectly innocuous gun reviews (see above).
The reason? That’s hard to say exactly, but this is what YouTube provided in each case:
Apparently we’ve violated the “Content that facilitates the sale of certain regulated goods, like firearms, ammunition, or prohibited firearm accessories” restriction.
To be absolutely clear, we are NOT “facilitating the sale” of any of these things. …Unless YouTube simply considers a positive review or any mild comment like saying something is a “good value” or stating the product’s MSRP or recommending the product is somehow “facilitating” its sale. I don’t believe that’s precisely what’s going on here, it’s just YouTube’s justification for the continuing the censorship of SNW’s videos (and other similar content creators).
In all cases I submitted an appeal, which is supposed to trigger a manual review. YouTube set expectations that an appeals review is likely to take up to 72 hours. In all cases our appeal was rejected within an hour — usually just a few minutes — and the content remained removed from any form of visibility on YouTube and/or deleted entirely from our library.
This level of restriction on legal, constitutionally protected activity is entirely unacceptable in a free society.
Hmm. Censored and/or removed from a platform over and over again for unclear reasons, for an extended length of time? Even when you attempt to modify your content to appease the mod goblins, fumbling your way through it because you’re never provided with specifics as to why you were censored? So that most of your posts never make it to the viewers?
That sounds rather frustrating. Frustrating indeed.
Hey, wait…
I’ve tried to explain this repeatedly, but here goes again: there’s no person who moderates comments on SNW here. It’s run by WordPress’ automated system. We have it set to low sensitivity but it still seems to catch and delay some comments and it’s often hard to know what aspect of the comment caused the system to flag it. Is HAS to be on, though, because every day it catches literally multiple thousands of spam comments (work from home crap, porn crap, various scams, online sales stuff, etc) along with a handful of legitimate comments from readers. There’s darn close to nothing Dan or I would censor in a comment from an actual SNW reader, but that WordPress automated system simply must be running if there’s to be a comment section at all, because without it there would be one legit comment for every 1,500 spam ones.
FYI I don’t actually think this is what YouTube is doing. Because of the randomness of the age of the videos that YouTube has been removing from our channel over the last couple years, I believe it’s anti-gun activists who see videos they believe they can get removed, they report them by clicking the button to report violations, YouTube either manually reviews or runs it through an AI or other algo, and then this process happens. If it were an automated program that immediately reviews everything like the WordPress comment spam program on SNW here, videos would get flagged almost immediately. But sometimes it’s a video that’s well over a year old, sometimes it’s 3 months old basically at a minimum. And YouTube is clearly more than happy to remove any firearm-related content they can get away with.
Yes, I’ve read your (and Dan’s) past explanations, but note that some comments post on screen, but next day are removed. That is not front end filtering, but suggests proactive moderative action at some level and by some entity. Also, my years-long username and email (going way back from TTAG) are somehow blacklisted now, and the new ones I tried were also eventually blacklisted within months each time and don’t result in any posts. This current one I’m using is similar to my classic legacy name, but if history is any guide, it will also follow the same pattern and no longer be successful soon. Anyone who has known me over the past decade knows I am not inflammatory by any means, and rather vanilla in my wording, so it’s a mystery.
I do note, however, that others’ longstanding names (Geoff, .40, jwm, et al) post regularly. Heck, .40 sometimes takes up entire comment sections on certain articles with multiple posts containing hyperlinks. Yet I am repeatedly blocked, and am now posting under this new name I recently attempted.
As I myself (during Dan’s days on TTAG and then here on SNW as we followed you two) have explained repeatedly, this would all be moot if we merely had *some type of explanation or guidelines* as to what the heck is causing all of this. If we had a roadmap of where the landmines are, we could navigate the path forward with our comments accordingly. But if we are never given the rules, we cannot properly play the game.
As for YouTube, I get it. I was fortunate to download gunsmithing videos (from big boys like Midway USA to small town Bubbas in overalls from the South) on nearly every make and model firearm I own, right before YT changed their policy and took them all down. YT is not 2A friendly.
I think it’s possible for a moderated comment to be shown only to you for some time due to cookies/computer history. If it isn’t manually moderated, then it won’t show up at some point in the future.
I used the edit function to find all of the trigger words and phrases when that system was implemented at the other site. The system is slightly different here in that more triggers have been added, and sometimes WordPress skips moderation and sends the comment straight to the WordPress trashcan. I haven’t figured out the triggers for that.
“I think it’s possible for a moderated comment to be shown only to you for some time due to cookies/computer history.”
I’ve tested that theory. Its always possible but it never worked out that way when I tested it. I used different browsers and computers and devices – post on one, it goes to moderation and shows but not on other systems then after a browser reload/refresh on the system it was posted from it vanishes for that system then finally appears later, shows up on different computers and devices other than the system it was posted from then a few days later it vanishes. I’ve had my share of those. Then there is that irritating thing where no matter what you do the comment will not post. Then there is that trigger-word post thing which is extremely irritating.
Hmm. That is weird.
I recently discovered that b-e-t-t-e-r and a-l-p-h-a-b-e-t are triggers. A-l-p-h-a-b-e-t didn’t even go to moderation. It went straight into the WordPress trashcan (page refresh, comment disappeared without awaiting moderation notification).
I just searched the WordPress “black list” for both ‘better’ and ‘alphabet.’ Neither word is there. If that is, in fact, happening I can’t see why.
Dan,
Check the WordPress trashcan. I just made two comment attempts. One contained the word b-e-t-t-e-r. The other contained the word a-l-p-h-a-b-e-t. Neither went to moderation. The page refreshed, and the comment disappeared (what you previously explained as going to the WP trashcan.)
Or you could try yourself without logging in as an admin.
I just tried a post with those two words Dan. It did not post, just went back to top of page like it does when the post goes to the WordPress trashcan.
alphabet better.
WordPress Comment moderation – seems its up to who ever runs the blog.
https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/comment-moderation/
Dan has posted before that he frequently approves comments in moderation, but I’d imagine he has more to do than playing moderator all the time.
WordPress Comment moderation – seems its up to who ever runs the blog.
https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/comment-moderation/
At times SNW posting comments is on par with the LASD issuing CCW permits.
Well that was a rather speedy post, let’s try for # 2 is it doesn’t stink too much.
FBI Still Hasn’t Fixed Massive Undercount of Major Crime Stats.
“Estimates vary quite a bit, but the consensus appears to be that hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of crimes are prevented each year by the presence of an armed citizen. In many of those cases, the citizen doesn’t fire a shot; sometimes the presence or even the mention of a sidearm is enough to deter a would-be attacker.
A recent piece by Dr. John Lott Jr. at Real Clear Investigations now reveals that the FBI has been undercounting this statistic by a factor of three – and continues to do so today.
…
Why, then, is the FBI not correcting its data systems? Why are some of these jurisdictions resisting the reporting of their crime statistics?
We can only assume it is because of one thing: The obvious conclusion that guns, as Dr. Lott has pointed out many times, prevent crimes if they are in the hands of law-abiding citizens. That doesn’t fit the agenda of the left, who run many of the jurisdictions in question. It doesn’t fit the agenda of the entrenched, pre-Patel FBI, many of whose members are still in place.
That last item, that’s something Director Patel can fix. The cities that are refusing to report crime statistics? That, sadly, is an issue for the voters of those cities.
…”
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/10/04/fbi-still-hasnt-fixed-massive-undercount-of-major-crime-stats-n2194724
In all cases our appeal was rejected within an hour — usually just a few minutes…
That’s because your cases are being reviewed by a blue-haired activist AI bot created by google.
I suppose you guys aren’t bothering with Rumble.
In “moderation”
Are the moderators in communist Cuba? North Korea? India? Communist China? Or Russia? Or Israel?
All with strict gun control.
In Chicago & far left wing violent Gov Pritzker intentionally foments far left wing insurrection and violence: ICE under attack & Audio CONFIRMS That CHIEF OF PATROL Gave STAND DOWN ORDER When Feds Fell Under Attack. [background note: for those who have not been following along….Pritzker has told all law enforcement in the state to not respond to ICE requests for assistance, well, as governor Pritzker can do that. But what Pritzker has also done in concert with this is he has urged and facilitated and aided far left wing domestic terrorists attacks on federal agents and federal government thus in effect Pritzker has attacked the United States and adopted a war like stance against the United States.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyM_I2Qk41g
Unbelievable: Chicago Cops Told Not to Respond When Federal Agents Were Surrounded.
“Bill Melugin and other sources are reporting that on October 4th, a CPD “Chief of Patrol” instructed his police officers not to respond when ICE/Border Patrol asked for help when they were under attack following a shooting. This type of order virtually never comes from the local precinct cops; that order comes from local politicians, either the mayor or possibly the governor would have given such an order.
…
The Chief of Patrol who ordered the standdown is Jon Hein. It happened on Saturday.
…
Note that the order transmitted is at the end of the tape. It is clear as day. Actively refusing to protect ICE/Border Patrol from local violence will result in more violence, and eventually, someone is going to be injured or killed if CPD officers are not allowed to respond to pleas from federal officers. The mob will find out that cops will not respond.
Politics has trumped common sense (pun intended). Politics has taken away reason. There are plenty of precedents for this — all from blue cities.
In 2020, when the “summer of love” kicked off in Seattle, with Antifa and other masked marauders taking over Seattle and then settling in at the absurdly named ‘Chaz’ (later called CHOP), the cops in that city were told that only under certain circumstances could sworn officers enter the ‘autonomous’ zone. In short, they were instructed to surrender to the will of people intent on forming a new nation, in the middle of Seattle.
A shooting occurred in that area, with cops and first responders allowed to enter if they asked for permission to enter. When cops are instructed by political hacks to stand down, only bad things happen. The East Precinct was under siege, but for boarding it up and putting out fires, that station would have met the same fate as the 3rd Precinct in Minneapolis.
Shortly after the George Floyd riots started in Minneapolis, the cops were under orders from political hacks that their precinct was not to be protected. Cops were ordered to allow felonies to occur. Many of them escaped the 3rd Precinct with nothing but their lives.
When local state and city cops are ordered not to prevent crime, criminals will do what they choose — and that is usually crime. When local cops are ordered not to help fellow officers – that is a like dystopian nightmare; the stuff of B-movie scripts where corrupt cops, on the take, refuse to help a fellow cop in distress because the cop that cop isn’t corrupt.
…”
https://redstate.com/jimthompson/2025/10/05/chicago-cops-told-to-not-respond-when-federal-agents-were-surrounded-n2194754
Now how about we form private militias. The way it use to be in this country.
Neighborhood watch and armed.
Unfortunately you can’t do that in states red communist states.
As I’ve said before. Disarm the police. Issue them night sticks and the training to use them. The Police in blue cities are useless. There is no reason for the cops to carry guns.
And so it happens again. The government, at any level, doesn’t have to enforce the laws when they don’t want to.
Dems voted to shut down the government because …. aside from wanting tax payer funded health care programs for illegal aliens and republicans refusing to do, ya know, make tax payers pay for it, the republicans also refused to fund these other things the democrats wanted: Government Shutdown EXPOSED > [among many other things] Zambia circumcisions, oversees pride parades, and dance and pastry classes for male prostitutes in Haiti…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCe539_jqrI
Sen. Kennedy Just Exposed More Absurd Things Democrats Shut Down the Government For.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/10/04/sen-kennedy-just-exposed-more-absurd-things-democrats-shut-down-the-government-for-n4944465
Sure you’re facilitating sales.
Simply by showing a thing exists you’re facilitating its sale.
Which I’m sure is YouTube’s point here given their prohibitionary, anti-rights position.
They/them identified as ‘trans-ported’: Portland chubby arrested trans protestor refused to walk so ICE provided free trans-port ….
https://x.com/ICEgov/status/1974865365252321479
More far left wing terrorist violence: DC police foil far left winger, and thwart possible terrorist attack on church.
”
…
A man was arrested outside of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle Sunday morning before Red Mass started, according to D.C. police.
Officers were assigned at the cathedral early Sunday morning for Red Mass, which marks the start of the Supreme Court’s annual term and is offered to members of judges, lawyers and anyone working in a legal profession.
At 6 a.m., police officers saw 41-year-old Louis Geri, who set up a tent on the steps of the cathedral. Geri was previously prohibited from the cathedral’s premises, police said.
Geri refused to leave and was arrested by police. Officers said they found multiple suspicious items inside of Geri’s tent, including vials of liquid and possible fireworks.
D.C. police’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal team and the Arson Task Force searched Geri’s belongings at the cathedral. Police say the scene has been secured and there is no threat to the public. The front entrance to the cathedral and the 1700 block of Rhode Island Avenue in Northwest D.C. remain closed as the investigation continues.
…
He has been charged with ‘unlawful entry, threats to kidnap or injure a person, and possession of a Molotov cocktail.’
…”
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2025/10/05/possible-terror-attack-thwarted-at-dcs-st-matthews-cathedral-n2194755