“I might not agree with everything you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
In short: Judge Jeanine Pirro hosts Brian Rose, founder of London Real, on her Fox News show Justice with Judge Jeanine on 4 July 2020. In a short segment, Brian explains why London Real’s two-and-a-half-hour April 2020 livestream was removed from YouTube, what he says YouTube told him, and why he argues that large technology platforms should be bound by free speech law.
The segment aired on Independence Day in the US, and Judge Jeanine opened by framing it as a fight for freedom of speech. She introduced Brian as a Californian and former Wall Street banker who moved to London and started a podcast with simple tools.
Brian describes how the April 6 broadcast became the second-largest livestream on YouTube that day, then was deleted around 30 minutes in, and how London Real responded by building its own broadcasting platform and taking legal action in the UK and US.
Key takeaways
- A big broadcast, then a removal. Brian said the April 6 conversation was the second-largest YouTube livestream that day, behind only President Trump, and was banned and deleted about 30 minutes later.
- The reason was vague. In a private call a day later, Brian said his YouTube representatives told him the stream broke “community standards” but would not give more detail.
- Topics at the centre. He said the conversation covered COVID-19 and lockdown issues, and that talk of the CDC, the WHO and possible vaccines was also being removed.
- A platform of their own. London Real raised over a million dollars from 31,000 supporters and streamed to over 1.3 million unique viewers on its own digital freedom platform.
- Who decides? Brian questioned whether a handful of unelected people and fact checkers at Silicon Valley firms should decide what everyone can say online.
- A legal argument. He argued that a private company acting as a public utility should follow the law of the land, citing the London Stock Exchange as a UK precedent.
A banned conversation
Judge Jeanine asked what Brian had discussed to get taken down. He said he never got a clear answer: YouTube cited community standards, and he described the rules as subjective and applied at the platform’s discretion. He said the conversation was about COVID-19 and lockdown, and that he was feeling censorship first-hand after nine years of broadcasting.
Brian linked the episode to wider debates about speech online, arguing that decisions were being made by “unelected, unaccountable, unknown” fact checkers. He asked why this was happening in an election year and said he believed YouTube’s policy was costing lives.
The digital freedom platform
After the removal London Real built what Brian called a censorship-free broadcasting system and kept streaming conversations he described as banned. He said more than 31,000 people had given over a million dollars to fund it during a deep recession, and that the large livestream that followed reached 1.3 million unique viewers.
Platforms as public utilities
Asked for a proposal, Brian said that lockdowns had pushed people to talk online, so a handful of platforms now sit between citizens and each other. His argument is that when a private company behaves as a public utility, it should follow the law. He said London Real was pursuing action in the UK and the US, and that a win in the UK would force policy change globally.
Weeks after this segment, Judge Jeanine Pirro appeared as a guest on London Real. Watch Judge Jeanine Pirro’s full London Real interview for her side of the conversation.
Who is Judge Jeanine Pirro?
Judge Jeanine Pirro hosted Justice with Judge Jeanine on Fox News. In this segment she interviewed Brian Rose, who grew up in California, worked as a banker on Wall Street, moved to London and founded London Real, which he described as having grown from podcasting in his kitchen to one of the largest independent media platforms. She later sat down with him on London Real.
Frequently asked questions
He said London Real’s April 2020 livestream was removed by YouTube under “community standards,” and argued that large technology platforms should follow free speech law.
Brian said the conversation covered COVID-19 and lockdown issues. He said YouTube did not give him specific reasons beyond citing community standards.
It is London Real’s independent broadcasting system, funded by over a million dollars from 31,000 supporters, which Brian described as free of censorship.
He argues that when a private company acts as a public utility it should follow the law of the land, and cited the London Stock Exchange as a UK precedent.
Judge Jeanine Pirro’s full London Real interview is linked on this page.
