In August 2019, the oligarchs of Big Tech scored a major win against free speech in America with the banning of popular YouTube star James Allsup.  At only 23 years old, the affable and telegenic Allsup had a following of nearly half a million subscribers. His videos had almost 100 million views on the platform, yet he was banned without so much as a warning.

The banning of Allsup by YouTube on August 28 was a direct outcome of what has been described as a "hit list" put out by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) less than two weeks earlier. Titled "Despite YouTube Policy Update, Anti-Semitic, White Supremacist Channels Remain," this article was an open call to censorship, appealing to YouTube's recent policy changes further restricting free speech.  But this "hit list" was only a small part of a plan set in motion by the ADL years before.