YouTube is now attacking entire news channels such as the One America News Network (OAN) for “misinformation”.
“YouTube banned One America News Network from posting new videos for a week and denied it the opportunity to make money on existing content,” Axios reported on November 24th. According to reports, a YouTube spokesperson had told the outlet that OAN had been fined for uploading a video promoting a false cure for the COVID-19 virus. Axios went on to say that the week-long suspension of the publication of new videos or live streams was the result of a “strike” published by YouTube. The “strike” was imposed for violating YouTube’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, which “forbids saying that the virus is guaranteed to be cured,” said Axios.
OAN presenter Alex Salvi quoted a response on behalf of the organization in which he blew up YouTube for “the extreme action taken by a national cable news network to censor a video that was not listed and not publicly available on YouTube.” A second part of the statement states: “Although OAN will comply with YouTube’s requirements for videos made available on YouTube, OAN will not allow YouTube’s arbitrary rules to violate the First Amendment’s editorial rights to public information.”
Axios recalled that the suspension is one of many ways YouTube is actively undermining OAN as a news organization:
- “OANN is also excluded from the YouTube partner program. If the company wants to re-monetize its videos, it will have to reapply.
- “YouTube has a three-strike policy before an account is closed. This is OANN’s first strike, but it has previously violated the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, which means it will no longer receive alerts if they violate the rules again – just additional strikes.
- “YouTube says it doesn’t view OANN as an authoritative source of news.”
This OAN censorship came when Democratic Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) led a group of his Liberal Senate colleagues on November 24th and asked YouTube to remove “misinformation”. In an open letter, he and his allies Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Gary Peters (D-MI) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called for swift action to suppress conservative dissent:
“Since the current president has not committed himself to a peaceful change of power, misinformation and manipulated media content on your platform can lead to unrest.”
YouTube made this censored decision after weeks of criticism of hosting OAN content. Bloomberg News condemned YouTube on Nov. 10 for voicing concern over alleged problems in the presidential election, host of the Weekly Briefing, Christina Bobb.
“On Monday, the One America News Network cable outlet posted two videos titled ‘Trump won’ on its YouTube account,” reported Bloomberg. The article went on to point out that these videos “falsely” claim that “US President Donald Trump has been re-elected and that the vote has been fraudulent.” Bloombeg’s objection was that YouTube merely “added a label stating that the Associated Press labeled Joe Biden’s election a” block[ing] or remove[ing] the content.”
OAN produced two videos of Bobb on November 9th with “Trump won” in the title. In each case, electoral issues were discussed, ranging from accusations of Democrats of doing a play to “steal the presidency” to election fraud to claims that news organizations announced election results early on to “breathe life into the Biden campaign”.
Conservatives are attacked. Contact Google at 1-650-253-0000 and request transparency on the platform: Organizations need to design open systems so that they can be held accountable while addressing privacy concerns. If you’ve been censored, contact us using the Media Research Center contact form and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
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