Digital Social Hour
The Fight Against Social Media Censorship | Yuval David DSH #1236
Fri, 14 Mar 2025
🎯 Join the fight against social media censorship on this episode of the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! Emmy-winning actor, filmmaker, and leading Jewish LGBTQ+ activist Yuval David shares powerful insights on activism, human rights, and battling online censorship. 🌍 From advocating for marginalized communities to tackling antisemitism and misinformation, this conversation is packed with valuable insights you won’t want to miss. 💡 Discover the challenges of navigating social platforms under shifting policies, hear Yuval’s stories of resilience, and explore how social media influences global narratives. From discussing free speech on X to the dangers of unchecked algorithms, this episode dives into the pressing issues shaping our digital world. 📢 Don’t miss out on this inspiring and eye-opening conversation! Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and join the movement for truth, justice, and open dialogue. 🚀 Let’s keep the conversation going—drop your thoughts in the comments below! 👇 CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:58 - Importance of Debate 04:17 - Repairing the World 10:25 - Palm Reading Techniques 11:36 - Social Media Algorithms Impact 13:44 - Meta Fact Checking Explained 18:50 - Unity Without Conformity Principles 26:55 - Trump's Gender Policy Analysis 30:38 - Condemning Anti-Semitism 33:00 - Understanding Antisemitism 34:20 - October 7th Attack Overview 37:07 - Where to Find Yuval APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Yuval David https://www.instagram.com/yuval_david_ https://www.yuvaldavid.com/ https://www.youtube.com/yuvaldavid LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ #donaldtrump #bigtechregulation #nadinestrossen #socialmediacensorship #censorship
Chapter 1: Who is Yuval David and what does he advocate for?
Okay, guys, we got Yuval David here today. Emmy and multi-award winning actor, filmmaker, journalist, and leading Jewish LGBTQ plus activist and advisor. Thanks for coming on today, man.
Thank you for having me on. You do such amazing work spreading messages and creating platforms for people to share what's important to them. And I think in this era of information and sharing narratives online, We have such a wide reach and that's exactly what you represent. So it's my pleasure and honor to be here.
Absolutely. I think having conversations are important. I know you engage in debates as well. I do. I think those are very important because when there's no debate, there's no growth, right?
Chapter 2: Why is debate important in today's society?
Yeah. And I firmly believe that everybody has a seat at the table. As long as you're not trying to kill somebody who's at the table or practice erasure or condemn their identity or their beliefs, then we all should sit at the table. And that's where growth happens. That's where learning happens. And debate is a wonderful thing to be challenged in life.
is when we grow and that's no matter if you're in school, no matter if you're practicing a sport, like I just got off the, we're here in Park City, so I just got off the mountain 20 minutes ago and was doing double black diamonds that some of the runs definitely challenged me and I became a better skier because of it.
When I have the opportunity to encounter people who have a different opinion than I do, especially when it's fact-based and very informed, it's amazing for me because who knows? Maybe I'll change my mind and how exciting is that?
Right. Has that happened for you where you've had a strong stance and you've seen some new information come to light and that made you change your opinion?
Yeah, absolutely. There are times that my strong stances have been challenged and I get more information and that either solidified my stance or gave me a deeper understanding of the opinions and beliefs against my stance. I've been a human rights, civil rights, social justice activist for most of my life. I was raised to be, to understand
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Chapter 3: What is the concept of Tikkun Olam?
that the privilege of life that I have makes my life not just my own. My life is of and for my family, my friends, my community, and for anybody who I can help. It's very much connected to the Jewish philosophy of making this world a better place. In Hebrew, a lot of people talk about the concept of tikkun olam, which means the repairing of the world.
If you're adding captions to this, T-I-K-K-U-N-O-M. I spelled that wrong.
I was writing that down.
No, I could tell. I saw you writing it down. Now, many people talk about this concept in Judaism of repairing the world, but it's paired with two other concepts of repairing, and that's repairing of the soul and repairing of the body. And One of the things that I love about it is it's not a simple concept. What does it mean to repair the world? Whose world? Is it my world? Is it my life?
Or is it your life? Or is it both of them? Or is it this entire planet? What does it mean to repair the body? Is it my physical body or my helping you to be as healthy as possible, mind, body, and soul? Or is it the body politic? And the answer is yes to all of that, the body of our peoplehood. And the last repairing is tikkun hanefesh, repairing of the soul.
And that also means the spirit, and that's the spirit of whose spirit, whose soul, the soul of our people, the soul of the world, the energy of the world. So tikkun olam, tikkun hanefesh, the soul, and tikkun haguf, G-U-F, repairing of the body.
That's fascinating stuff. So you live by these principles?
I do. And it's also interesting because to live by them doesn't mean to succeed all the time. It also means to fail. And the people who are the most ambitious in life without bringing in an arrogance into it, understand that the failures are a place in which we learn and in which we can improve and take that as direction.
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Chapter 4: How does Yuval David view challenges and failures?
for the next time we attempt to do something for our own good or the greater good.
I'm of the belief failure is necessary in life.
I wish more people would say that. I wish more people would say that. You know, I have a buddy who I'm not going to mention who... Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.
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Chapter 5: What is Yuval David's approach to palm reading?
was skiing with me, intermediate skier. And he didn't react well to some of the challenges and had like this freak out moment. So I said, you know, like, hey man, let's just chill, look around, breathe, enjoy the environment. what was challenging about that. And we spoke about it. I was like, great, we're down here, right? And he's like, yeah. And I said, that basically means you did it.
You didn't fall. It was hard, but you didn't fall. It pissed you off because it was hard. Let's try it again. And he had this realization. He's like, I didn't want to coach right now. I said, I didn't expect to coach right now, but whatever you want to do it. And he said, yeah. And then we did it again.
And he ended up loving it because he had this little mental shift on how do you approach the things that challenge you? Challenges are important. Failure, falling, as long as you don't terribly hurt yourself, is important. There's that old saying, the greatest warrior has fallen off of her horse.
And when she has fallen off of her horse, she understands not just how to get back up on the horse and why it's important to get back up on the horse, but it makes her more courageous, more brave, and more prepared for the next battle.
I love that. Wow. You took your friend on a double black diamond and he's an intermediate skier?
And now he's able to do black diamonds. And it wasn't intentional. I wasn't like, I'm not a tour guide of the mountain. I just go and sometimes you're surprised and well, you know what? There's a double black diamond in front of you. So what are you going to do? And he now wants to do more. He wants to do more single black diamonds.
He doesn't want to do more double black diamonds yet, but at least he progressed from blue groomers to black diamonds and he knows that he can do it. He did a double black diamond. He made it down. He didn't fall. He took his time. It was very hard for him. His form was sloppy, but he made it down and now he's going to do it better next time.
That's impressive. I've never gone. I want to go skiing one day. You can ski with me, but I'll challenge you. Not on the gold black diamond though. We'll see. Not on my first one.
Not on your first one. No, no, no. It's, you know, you got to go step by step. One thing I, in the process of learning and becoming better and exploring the world, I There's no need to rush. No need to rush somebody into the challenge. It's a gradual process, but everybody has their own process. Absolutely.
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Chapter 6: How have social media platforms evolved under new leadership?
I was like, who is this guy? So then we get to talking and I'm just really fascinated that you were doing that, but you're also on the news stations. Like that's considered a pretty spiritual thing, the palm reading, right?
Yeah. Since I was a kid, I learned the artistry of reading palms. And then I started to study the International Phonetic Alphabet and then Laban Movement Analysis, L-A-B-E-A-N. Laban was this man who looked at the way people moved and created an actual written vocabulary that to describe movement. And all of those are paired together.
So when I actually do read somebody's palms, which I find so intriguing because it's our hands that allow us to do so much for those of us who have hands, right? And our hands are very revealing to what our subtext is. when you try to really read somebody, look at what their hands are doing.
And we understand how to wear a mask and how to present well or present how we wish to present, but when you look at their hands, it will tell you something extra about them. So when I read somebody's palms, I don't only read their palms. I don't always tell them. I was reading Charlie's palms, but I'm reading all of their movements.
I'm reading their facial expressions and then giving them reflecting back information that I see within them. Interesting.
Yeah. I was always very skeptical of palm readers growing up, to be honest. But the way you're describing it, it's interesting to me.
Well, it's a major part of our body, right? Every part of our body can tell us something or can tell somebody else something about who we are and how we are. And I think in humanity and our socialization, we've distanced ourselves from being able to read each other, especially in the technology era that has distanced us further from our animal nature. But I'm a dog person.
Dogs can read each other and understand what the other dog is saying purely based on the movement without hearing a sound. We're the same, we respond to people's bodies and movements, whether we're aware of it or not. Interesting.
100%.
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Chapter 7: What are the issues with social media censorship?
Right, and it spreads fast.
Very fast. So that's why it's important for us to understand who are the sources, reliable sources, who do we trust, who do we resonate with, and who do we not resonate with. So you can still comment and connect and engage with the posts on social media that...
you find offensive or that you're against, but at least write, comment, create content about how that is wrong information or information that you don't appreciate or whatever your position is.
Yeah, you never know what you'll see on X these days. What did you think of meta removing fact checking?
I think that that was a very problematic fact-checking process that Meta had, and they hired externally people who would censor information. One thing that we saw were there were people who were actually sharing factual information who were getting censored, and then there were people who were connected or supporting terrorist groups who were sharing information and weren't censored.
that's a really big problem. How does social media have to engage in censorship and in fact checking when there's false information being shared? So when people really looked closely at what Zuckerberg announced, I actually think that it was a positive thing.
I agree, especially with certain things that they were not putting to light the vaccine stuff and certain other topics.
Totally. And also, I'm a Jewish activist. I'm an Israeli activist. I'm a Zionist activist. Not only the stuff that I would comment and create social media content about Jewish and Israeli topics, but even about other world affairs. I had so many of my posts taken down when I looked at other similar posts by other people that were still up. So I was like, well, how is this happening?
And there has been an erasure and a silencing of Jewish activist voices on social media, especially over the last four years. So I'm really hoping that that's going to change because I'm wanting my people to be able to express themselves without people trying to Practice erasure or take away their right of self and community expression. Right.
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Chapter 8: How does Yuval David address antisemitism online?
Wow. Not Twitter?
My Twitter was never taken down, but my TikTok and my Instagram were taken down at least a couple times each.
Damn. That's wild. I wonder what you're saying specifically that's making them want to take you down. Yeah.
I post a lot about the war in Gaza, about human rights concerns, about democracy, about the need for Israel to exist. And I also condemn terrorism and terrorist supporters very, very boldly and openly. And I think that has upset people.
But I know a lot of Jewish activists and allies of the Jewish people and allies of Israel or people who believe in American and Israeli democracy and democracies around the world whose accounts were also taken down, even if they're not Jewish, because they're posting that type of content.
So we know that there are Islamist and Islamist supporting movements that are trying to take these accounts down. And again, it goes back to the start of our conversation. I don't believe in silencing people. I believe that everybody should sit at the table as long as you're not trying to kill somebody at the table or erase their identity or say that they don't have a right to share their opinion.
Hmm.
I believe in, I have a pretty low bar. The low bar is, do you believe in women's rights, LGBT rights, freedom of religion, education, equal access to education, healthcare for all, and the ability for people to run for office and protest against people who are in office and against their government? I believe in democracy and in our constitutional republic.
I think it's a very important process, and I'm glad that I'm a citizen of two countries, Israel and the United States, both of which have this system of checks and balances that our government, there are people in our government who are completely opposing each other, but they both still have the same amount of power to try to contest each other and each other's policies. That is so important.
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