Rich Benoit made quite the name for himself in the electric vehicle (EV) community after getting into the business of refurbishing older models, including a 2013 Tesla S P85. EV enthusiasts everywhere were enthralled with his work, which led to him garnering more than 700,000 subscribers and 80 million video views.
But things quickly went south when Benoit launched a recent project called, "Why I'm selling my Tesla and going back to Gas." Benoit announced that he was abandoning a project he had recently started on a Tesla, and is now planning to go exclusively back to gas.
"This video is going to be a little bit different," he stated at its opening. "In this episode I'm going to be re-building a Tesla Model S. It's going to be from start to finish in one episode, while I talk over the reasons why I'm switching back to gas. Kind of ironic, isn't it?"
Tesla fans were not impressed by this announcement and apparently flagged the video, resulting in it being pulled from the platform after just a few hours. According to YouTube, Benoit had violated its "Community Guidelines" with this video.
"The Tesla fanboys formed like Voltron and ganged up to flag my video for removal on youtube," Benoit tweeted to his followers after learning the news.
"The video which was flagged for 'inappropriate content' was about me selling my Tesla and buying a gas car instead. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when you anger the hive."
Tesla "cult" disliked Benoit's video so many times that YouTube took action
In addition to flagging Benoit's video, the Tesla "cult" also disliked it so many times that YouTube apparently intervened, believing these dislikes to suggest that the video contained certain unsavory elements worthy of being pulled.
"People clearly did not like the content even though there was no cursing," Benoit added.
"I've been on YouTube for several years now and I've never had a video pulled, so having a video pulled within five hours after announcing that I'll be replacing my Tesla with a gas powered vehicle doesn't seem like a coincidence."
Benoit appealed YouTube's decision and eventually got his video reinstated, which is similar to what happened back in 2012 when thousands of free speech advocates successfully petitioned YouTube to stop censoring videos about the use of unconstitutional torture tactics by the federal government.
At the same time, the fact that YouTube pulled down Benoit's video at all serves as a chilling reminder that Big Tech is completely out of control and in desperate need of some antitrust intervention. This fact was further illustrated after YouTube pulled down Benoit's video a second time after its republishing.
"I have given up, yes," Benoit stated, indicating that he is not going to continue trying to appeal to the YouTube "gods" to honor his freedom of speech. "It's not worth it me trying for a third time."
While it was previously believed that YouTube only censored political content deemed "inappropriate," we can now see that YouTube is also censoring all sorts of other content, including different opinions on the alleged "benefits" of EVs.
Not everyone likes EVs, and not everyone believes that they are really as "environmentally friendly" as claimed. And it used to be that holding different opinions on this was acceptable – but no longer, thanks to the overreaching control arm of Big Tech.
More related news about tech censorship is available at Censorship.news.
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