CNN mass copyright claims political commentary videos covering the 2020 Democratic presidential debates

Numerous YouTube, Twitch stars and political commentators including David Pakman, Kyle Kulinski, Destiny, Hasan Piker, and Trihex have had their coverage of the second round of 2020 Democratic presidential debates demonetized or removed as a result of CNN filing copyright claims. Some of these creators were also given strikes or suspensions that temporarily prevented them from live streaming.

David Pakman, who hosts a progressive political talk show on YouTube, received a hard strike on his channel when preparing to stream commentary of the first night of the debate. Pakman says he started the stream 15 minutes before the event and had accumulated 10,000 live viewers and climbing. Then two minutes after the debate started, CNN issued the hard strike and cut off his stream.

Not only was Pakman’s stream shut down but he was also initially banned from live streaming on YouTube for 90 days because CNN issued this hard strike. In his video about the incident, Pakman points out that hard strikes which result in live streaming privileges being revoked are optional and CNN could have chosen to claim the ad revenue on his stream without limiting his ability to live stream in the future.

…