Ted Cruz whines that YouTube won't let 'comedian' make money harassing a gay man

Less than a week into Pride Month, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to Twitter on Thursday to defend Steven Crowder, a vile, anti-gay, racist bully who has been incessantly harassing Carlos Maza, a journalist with Vox.

“This is ridiculous,” Cruz said upon learning that YouTube will no longer allow Crowder to make money from ads because his content violates their rules. Cruz threatened YouTube, telling them to “stop playing God & silencing those voices you disagree with. This will not end well.” Cruz ended his tweet with a hashtag showing support for Crowder.

YouTube “demonetized” Crowder after Maza complained about the incessant bullying and mocking from Crowder, including using derogatory language to attack Maza, who is gay and a Latino. (YouTube initially said Crowder’s comments did not violate their terms of use but later reversed their decision.)

“I’ve been called an anchor baby, a lispy queer, a Mexican, etc.,” Maza wrote in a Twitter thread at the end of May, publicizing his effort to get YouTube to do something to stop the harassment. “This isn’t about ‘silencing conservatives.’ I don’t give a flying fuck if conservatives on YouTube disagree with me. But by refusing to enforce its anti-harassment policy, YouTube is helping incredibly powerful cyberbullies organize and target people they disagree with.”

Whenever Crowder posts a video on YouTube mentioning him, “I wake up to a wall of homophobic/racist abuse on Instagram and Twitter,” Maza wrote.

In the thread, Maza posted a video of Crowder’s repeated attacks. (Warning: The clip contains homophobic and racist language.)

https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/1134264395717103617

When it came time to choose between a bully and the person being bullied, Cruz wasted no time siding with the bully. Cruz associated himself with Crowder in the past, appearing on his show as recently as November 2018, according to the Hill.

Cruz tweeted about the Crowder issue seven times in less than 24 hours, yet his Twitter feed makes no mention at all of Pride Month. He made it clear that he stands on the side of bigotry and bullies, no matter how vile they are.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.