WATCH: Hypocrisy, censorship and self-interest: Vivek Ramaswamy SLAMS Big Tech

"YouTube censored videos of doctors & scientists criticizing COVID-19 lockdown policies. Who benefited the most from the lockdowns? Big Tech, of course. Science and democracy depend on open debate. Silencing debate is wrong. It’s a self-interested scam," says Ramaswamy in the caption to the video.

At particular issue is YouTube's recent pulling of a video put up by the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL):

Ramaswamy was asked:

"Vivek, I wanna ask you about this YouTube incident, about the fact that they pulled this video. Their claim is that, you know, this violates what the scientists are saying, what the medical community's consensus is on this issue."

"So, my question is, are they then going to look at every video on YouTube, dissect it, make sure that everything is 100 percent in line with the consensus of the medical community? My guess is no, my guess is that this is a selective purging. What is your take?"

He responded:

"Actually, I think it's maybe scarier in the other direction, that maybe they may begin to do that."

"But the way I look at it is: science is a method of inquiry, not what some authority says at a given point in time. It depends on the open exchange of ideas."

"And just like democracy as a political system isn't just about casting some ballot every November. It depends on free debate and open speech. And that's why this isn't just a liberal-arts luxury. The integrity of science and democracy both depend on it."

"COVID-19 lockdown policies were arguably the most significant scientific and public policy debate of the last year. And Google has consistently come out and censored only one side of that debate, and that's downright frightening."

"But there's also hypocrisy in it. If they take the state and the standard of the WHO as truth, just a year ago, last January, they would have censored any video that said that COVID, that the coronavirus was transmissible from person to person, since that ran contrary to the WHO's position at that time."

"If the last year teaches us anything, if history teaches us anything, it's that most of our current beliefs will be, at some point, proven false or modified in some way. And the only way we're gonna get there is through more speech, not through less. And yet, the overlords at Google have failed to understand that. "