YouTube warned Romania’s Senate to shut down its channel due to controversial senator Diana Sosoaca’s anti-mask messages

The YouTube channel administration has warned the Romanian Parliament’s Upper House (the Senate) that they will take down the page of the institution if anti-mask messages posted by controversial senator Diana Sosoaca continue, Chair of the Senate’s Law Committee, Liberal Iulia Scantei said.

A first step was the deletion of this kind of video clips posted by Diana Sosoaca.

“The Senate’s YouTube page was taken down because of certain video recordings with remarks by Diana Sosoaca, because – contrary to the policy pledged by the respective channel – they incite to not wearing mask. The YouTube online policy administrators issued a first warning to the Senate and the video footage posted on the Senate’s YouTube page was deleted. This was a short notice they gave us, and they also explained why the posts would be deleted and that if such anti-mask video messages are posted again on YouTube, the Senate’s page will be completely banned,” Iulia Scantei specified.

According to her, the Senate’s Legal Committee was unable to hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss on Diana Sosoaca’s conduct, following a request of the Standing Bureau has made upon the request of the parliamentary group of the National Liberal Party (PNL).

Diana Sosoaca came on Tuesday to the Law Committee’s meeting, but the committee refused to allow her in the room because “she was wearing a non-compliant mask”. More precisely, Sosoaca was wearing a plastic, transparent mask, which is not compliant with the sanitary rules in force.

However, Sosoaca stirred a scandal when trying to enter the room, by aggressively voicing her dissatisfaction both before the committee and at the door of the meeting room, against the obligation to wear a mask, about which she claimed “it doesn’t protect her from the virus”.

Sosoaca was accused by her senator colleagues that she doesn’t comply with the sanitary protection standards, that she doesn’t wear face mask in the plenary sitting room, that she instigates to hatred in her speeches, that she is spreading injuries, while using a xenophobic, homophobic and extremist speech.

The former AUR senator tried to enter the meeting room, but the committee’s chairwomen, Laura Scântei denied her access and asked two colleagues to guard the door to prevent her from entering.

From that moment Sosoaca lashed out, arguing with the members of the legal committees, and even calling the Police and 112, claiming she was bullied, more precisely that she would have been kicked with the door by a Parliament’s employee. She said she will get herself a gun permit, arguing that her rights are not observed.

On Wednesday, the chair of the Legal Committee in the Senate, Iuliana Scântei, told RFI that senator Sosoaca risks receiving a public written warning for the slippage lately, including for refusing to wear a proper protection facemask, which means she will not be able to take the floor from the Parliament’s tribune for three months.