Today there’s a backlash against Covid era censorship that saw the official suppression of often truthful information about Covid, Covid vaccines, and more. In a broader sense, Europe is seeing shocking battles over censorship of speech—and even thoughts! A new documentary called “We Will Not Be Silenced” tells the true story of censorship of a UK-based podcast called London Real. Brian Rose hosts the podcast and he begins by telling us what happened on April 6, 2020 when a widely-viewed episode was deleted and banned by YouTube.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Sharyl: What was the episode about?

Brian Rose: It was a conversation about Covid, asking questions about masks and distancing, and even talking about the V word, the vaccine. We were one of the very early people to be broadcast and then censored by YouTube.

Sharyl: So those were rational questions to explore. And we later found a lot of people who were raising those questions were on the right track, whereas the government was on the wrong track. But you had an immediate backlash.

Rose: Immediate. And I was a partner at YouTube. I had spent time with the headquarters, made them millions of dollars, and that was the first time I had ever heard or felt censorship. I thought it happened to the weirdos until it happens to you. And my immediate reaction was to reupload the video and to fight back. And so we got in to a very public fight with YouTube, which is owned by Google, and then all sorts of regulators here in the UK, Ofcom, a lot of other trillion dollar tech companies blocked us. And we were, I think, probably the first people at the tip of the spear of this entire censorship apparatus that went much higher into the government.

Sharyl: After that happened to you, what did you see happening on a broader scale?

Rose: Well, it was weird because I was subsequently deplatformed from Dropbox, LinkedIn, PayPal, all simultaneously. And when I started asking questions, you know, I almost felt silly to even imply there might be some type of coordination because it just didn’t seem possible at the time. Later now we see the Twitter files, we see government was involved, but at the time I was flabbergasted. But we just decided to keep on fighting. We ended up having to create our own streaming platform and as our, as our last kind of finger to the man, we broadcast the same conversation with the same person about a month later to about a million people strong, just to prove that we could do it in the face of censorship by these trillion-dollar tech platforms.

Sharyl: Your podcast is produced in the United Kingdom?

Rose: Yes, it is.

The UK is just one global hotspot where crackdowns on speech is taking on new dimensions.

Internet video: I’m arresting you on suspicion of improper use of the electronic Communications Network

Governments are stretching the bounds of their authority to claim that mere words that someone finds offensive—might be criminal.

Internet video: This is in relation to some comments that you’ve made on a Facebook page.

Internet video: Oh, gee, a Facebook crime, is it?

In August, the UK government issued an ominous “Think Before You Post” statement, saying social media posts that some consider hateful are harmful and could get you arrested. “Remind those close to you to share responsibly or face the consequences,” the government warned.

In Australia, at the height of Covid a pregnant woman was handcuffed in her kitchen at home and charged with using social media to arrange an anti-lockdown protest.

Internet video: And I wasn’t breaking any laws by doing that.

Internet video: You were actually, you were breaking the law, that is why I am arresting you.

More recently, an Australian teen arrested for posting crude rankings of high school students.

And in what critics call a crackdown on “Freedom to Think”

Internet video: Are you praying?

Internet video: I might be praying in my head.

A pro-life woman in Great Britain was repeatedly arrested for doing nothing more than thinking prohibited thoughts outside and abortion business in a designated “public spaces protection” zone.

Internet video: You said you are engaging in prayer, which is the offense.

Internet video: Silent prayer.

Internet video: No, but you were still engaging in prayer. It is an offense.

She recently won a $17,000 settlement and apology from police.

Brian Rose’s documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced,” chronicles his fight against censorship.

Sharyl: So what would people learn by watching the documentary?

Rose: I think they would learn that first of all, censorship is real, and censorship works. If you can keep me off these monopoly trillion dollar tech platforms, people forget about you. And it’s just like silencing or having people killed back in the day. You might as well just quiet our messages.

We Will Not Be Silenced documentary clip: This is the story of how we got censored. How we put everything on the line for what we believed in.How we were betrayed. How we fought backAnd exposed the truth.

Rose: People need to hold these people accountable. Donald Trump was recently on Fox by saying that “Google is doing wrong things”. And I would like to see the Google files, I would like to be re-platformed. I think we need a government investigation in to these companies that are actually more powerful than our governments. I think people need to be aware of the level of censorship that’s happening on a regular basis directed by the governments. When I was censored, I went to my governments and said, “what about my first amendment? What about Article 18 of the European Union?” And they said, “no, it’s a private company. You signed their, their platforms and their agreements.” Meanwhile, I find out later that government officials were going behind my back into these private companies and forcing them to violate my rights, which are felonies. And then of course, not to mention the millions of people that probably died for a lack of that information.

Sharyl: This happened to untold thousands or even more people than that. Is there anything you see ordinary people can do when they’re faced with the same kind of thing?

Rose: Well, you know, as the guest that I had on the show that was very famous, you know, he always said, “we’re actually more powerful than they are. And you only need about four or five percent of the population to just say, no, we’re not gonna do these things. I’m not going to stay at home. I’m not going to wear a mask. I’m not gonna do what you say. And they actually can’t control us.” So the real lesson of the movie is, is fear. Fear was weaponized. And it got us to behave in a really small way. And I don’t know about you, but I saw really intelligent people during that lockdown make terrible decisions and that fear, it just, it made them so helpless. And I think we need to recognize it’s a tool that can be used at any point in time to make us stop using our brains and make us play really small. And it’s, it’s weaponized in many, many ways right now. And so that’s one of the other things just to be aware of. Also there’s a lot of other platforms right now to share ideas, but still, most people get their news from the big tech companies, Google Search, YouTube, even the TikToks and the Instagram. And if they’re banning things, most people are too busy in their lives. They’re in their economic prisons and they can’t really do the research to really think big. And so I just want people to be aware of these things and maybe to get the government to be held accountable.

Sharyl (on-camera): Rose’s documentary “We Will Not Be Silenced” can be seen on X, formerly Twitter, at the London Real TV account.

Watch video here.