APOPKA, Fla. –-(Ammoland.com)- On Tuesday, YouTube banned the channel belonging to Spike’s Tactical, a well-known gun and AR-15 manufacturer, without prior notice or warnings.
When thousands of Spike’s Tactical followers now attempt to visit the company’s YouTube channel, a red banner says, “This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.”
However, according to representatives from Spike’s Tactical, they claim they have not received any prior warnings about the content of their channel and feel they are being targeted because they are a gun manufacturer and for their vocal support for conservative issues.
“This is without question an attack on free speech,” said Kit Cope, marketing director of Spike’s Tactical. “We feel strongly that after they get done going after guns, they’ll continue to ban and erase content that falls in line with conservative ideologies like they have already demonstrated with the deletion of anti-abortion videos and the like.”
While Spike’s Tactical has been known for delivering controversial marketing materials across other mediums, their YouTube page has remained nearly entirely educational and served the purpose of demonstrating their products.
“While we rarely believe in government intervention, with the recent exposure of Google, YouTube and Facebook’s power and their demonstrated manipulation of the masses, we believe something needs to be done to ensure the public is able to continue to be able to express themselves freely, even if it is something we don’t necessarily agree with, but especially when it is something that is constitutionally defined as a right,” said Cope.
In addition to this recent issue with YouTube, Facebook has continually prohibited Spike’s Tactical for paying to boost their posts because they are a gun manufacturer, representatives from the company said.
About Spike’s Tactical
Spike’s Tactical was founded the day before 9/11 by Mike and Angela Register and is headquartered in Apopka, Florida. The family-owned business employs around 40 people and all products are made exclusively in the USA and assembled in Florida. Spike’s Tactical is regarded as one of the premier AR-15 manufacturers in the world. Their mission is to build the highest quality products and offer them at the best possible price to the consumer. Spike’s Tactical weapons are designed to military specifications for civilian, law enforcement and military use. All products manufactured by Spike’s Tactical feature a manufacturer’s lifetime warranty.
To Jerry May: It would be funny, if it wasn’t so sad, that someone would read your response to me and think we were saying the same thing! I do believe that at this point, businesses like YouTube, need to be controlled more than we have in the past: zero regulation, zed, nada. Our long history of grappling with freedom and what it means has shown us that it is always best to step back and allow something to develop before taking any permanent action. Citibank’s response was either a personal vendetta from a board member, a marketing choice, or… Read more »
Wow, Lee and Jerry May have their panties in a bunch because they don’t like what we say about You Bube. It is very easy to tell they are on the left side of the fence and talk about owning guns just like we have heard a thousand times before. What a waste of reading time to entertain them. I’m done listening or commenting to them because they are TROLLS.
I am very sad this morning, and disappointed. Unfortunately we have a Troll on this site that has been masquerading as a Constitutional free speech and gun rights advocate. He has been getting away with it simply because he writes well and appears to be educated, and owns a gun as many of us do. If he is well-educated, his teachers let him down. In the final analysis, he will do all of us, the real believers in the difficult process of creating a society that offers as many people as possible a form of freedom, a great injustice. Without… Read more »
Denny: What is the answer, other than working within our system? This might be a bit too much for a lot of people reading this but the root of this problem is free speech. Free speech is great, but we are not really concerned with our right to stand up in Central Park, or Hyde Park for that matter. No one is restricting our free speech. They are attempting to use mass-media way beyond what was foreseen. As an example, over-the-air broadcasters were required to prove social relevance and other factors before being allowed to broadcast. That was enacted before… Read more »
I am on Spike’s channel right now. I’m watching the “Tool-Less Trigger Guard” video with Alex.
Here we are,, The Government can shutdown a business for refusing to sell a weding cake and then allow a business to ban and censor thousands of people for supporting the constitution. I am speechless, however, It’s time to find my Voice and speak up….Stop this Madness!! I see that most of the people here agree with me, with the exception of a few fence sitters.