Jubilee debate video with fascist participant roils internet

The Jubilee YouTube channel, known for its debate style videos, is faced with an online backlash after a participant in a recent self-identified program as a fascist. The incident swirled the Internet, inspiring online discussions for days, and it also had major consequences. The man, who identified himself as Connor in the video, says that he was then dismissed from his work.

The episode, which was published on Sunday, featured the British journalist American Medhi Hasan, who was responsible for debating 20 “far -right conservatives”. Hasan organized a program on MSNBC from February 2021 to January 2024.

Hasan said President Donald Trump “defies the Constitution” as one of the conversation subjects. In a debate of about seven minutes with Hasan, Connor spoke of his desire for autocracy in the United States and praised the ideas of Carl Schmitt, a political philosopher of the Nazi party, while saying that there was “a little persecution” of the Jewish people during the holocaust.

“Are you a fan of the Nazis?” Hasan asked the participant.

“Frankly, I don’t care to be called Nazi,” said Connor.

Later, Hasan said: “We may have to rename this show, because you are a little more than a far-right republican.”

“What can I say?” Connor replied.

“I think you say:” I am a fascist “.”

“Yeah, I am,” said Connor with a smile while many others in the circle applaud.

In just two days, the YouTube video collected 4 million views. Clips quickly started to spread online, arousing criticisms that the chain and YouTube were pro-FASCist content.

“Jubilee is no longer even a debate. It is just a pure hatred that these people have in their hearts. Giving these people a platform is crazy for me,” said a comment that made more than a thousand likes under Youtube video.

A creator known as the @mattxiv on X user name has published a remark that has been seen more than 500,000 times: “I do not think that a chain which gives a platform of millions to people who identify themselves as a fascist ” should be authorized to monetize their videos. Do yourself @youtube. ” YouTube did not respond to a request for comments.

Google data has shown that “jubilee” research has increased significantly on Tuesday after Connor announced that he was dismissed from his work.

Hasan has since declared online that the extent of the opinions of the guests was not entirely communicated to him before leaving for the show.

“To be clear, I did not know they would be real of the fascists open!” Hasan said on X.

In another answer, responding to someone who had asked why Hasan would agree to participate in the program if “Jubilee invited a heap of Nazis”, he said that “this is not how the debate was sold to me. You can see my shock when he starts to openly express his opinions.”

Connor later said that he was dismissed because of his participation in the video. In an interview with the right -wing social media brand Therifttv, Connor said that being dismissed made him feel “destroyed”. Therifttv has launched a fundraising to help him while he is looking for new jobs that have already received more than $ 30,000. Connor did not respond to a request for comments.

“Unfortunately, expressing fully legal traditional political opinions leads to real consequences,” read the description of the campaign on Givenendgo, a Christian crowdfunding site which has become an essential platform for controversial crowdfunding campaigns. “It is a question of canceling the culture and political discrimination at full exhibition.”

In what seems to be Connor’s Telegram channel, many rallied behind him in his debate, writing that Hasan “had nothing to say because you were right”, among other comments from Haine on Hasan.

The YouTube video was part of the web series of Jubilee “Houndhed”, in which a guest sits in the middle of a circle, “surrounded” with around 20 people with opposite views. The web series has presented well -known political influencers such as the main debaters, including Owens Cane, Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro.

The show works by ensuring that the main guest begins a debate by making a complaint and that those who wish to debate rush towards a chair in front of the person in the middle. Whoever touches the chair first is authorized to participate.

Anyone sitting on the chair is able to participate in the debate until those surrounding the president decide to vote the participant. People who want the person in the middle to be rejected can lift a red flag, and if enough people raise their flags, the person is launched from the debate and replaced by another person in the circle.

It is not the only video that has become viral for its controversial participants. Clips of several other “surrounded” videos have caused controversy in the past, users saying that the chain gave a platform with fanatic views. One of the most viewed videos in the channel, a debate in which Kirk is surrounded by “25 liberal students”, has accumulated 30 million views.

In an interview this year, the CEO of Jubilee Media, Jason Lee, responded to these concerns, saying that the channel welcomes people with controversial opinions to give their audience the “ability to hear a nuanced perspective[s]. “He added that the program is trying to limit disinformation by incorporating the verifications of the facts into the videos.

“This is a question that was asked to us:” Is it dangerous of the platform or certain voices or points of view? ” And the way I answered this is that I have the impression of living in a more dangerous world if two individuals are unable to sit in the same room together and have a conversation, “said Lee. “This does not necessarily mean that the conversation will be productive or that anyone will necessarily change your point of view, but I think that is sorely lacking.”

The video showing Hasan’s debate with Connor only offers one verification of the facts, for an assertion that Connor made on the number of people killed by the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Jubilee’s videos cover a range of subjects. Currently, the channel recruits people for its “surrounded” series, including “conspiracy theorists”, “conservative Christians” and “anti-capitalist[s]And are part of a broader trend in the internet content in a debate style.