Rebel News, a news outlet founded by Canadian writer Ezra Levant, has been demonetized by YouTube. Levant claims Rebel News channel was suspended from the ad program for criticizing the lockdown.
“YouTube has come for Rebel News,” Levant said when breaking the news of the demonetization. “They’re completely cancelling all remaining ads on our channel, even from advertisers who specifically request our channel.”
“Worse, they’re banning our 1.45 million YouTube subscribers from voluntarily paying us through what are called livestream SuperChats,” he added.
According to Levant, the move by YouTube will cost the outlet “about $400,000 a year.” The only way to get back into YouTube’s ads program is to “stop criticizing the lockdown” and “reapply in thirty days.”
“We have to stop saying what we say. We have to say what they say,” Levant said, as he explored the options his news outlet has going forward.
Levant detailed his third and only option. He believes YouTube will eventually “suspend our channel altogether.”
Levant said the demonetization meant that the outlet was now down $400,000.
Rebel News had been featuring its reporter Keean Bexte, who was covering Canada’s “COVID jails.” His reporting recently landed him in “jail.”
“I was recently on a work assignment in Florida, covering Canadian vaccine refugees fleeing Trudeau’s procurement failure and heading stateside for a poke in the arm,” Bexte explained.
“Upon returning, I was threatened with a $750,000 fine and six months in jail if I did not submit to an illegal throat inspection and subsequently present myself to a local gulag.”
Now he is suing the government.
“Enough is enough. Not only does this program trample over the fundamental rights and freedoms of thousands of Canadians every week — it is causing irreparable financial, emotional, and in some cases, physical harm to countless vulnerable citizens.
Specifically, our lawsuit argues that this government program is a flagrant and ongoing violation of sections 7, 8, and 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (along with a few other laws and freedoms).”
