The automated YouTube system removed, “by accident,” the live broadcasts of channels such as Breitbart News and RSBN (Right Side Broadcasting Network) who were covering the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, despite other channels also streaming it.
Political accident?
On Tuesday 21, during the Senate impeachment trial, many media outlets followed the story, whether broadcasting it on television or online.
However, an alleged “error” on YouTube removed this broadcast on some channels, Breitbart writes. Although from the platform they said it was a mistake, some conservative media suspect that it was political censorship as other channels streaming it remained online.
According to a YouTube spokesperson, the fault originated because the automated system that searches for copyrighted content in the new videos detected that these live broadcasts broke the rules. However, they made it clear that none of YouTube’s systems or staff removes videos based on their political content.
Persecution of certain news channels
Right Side Broadcasting Network showed through a tweet some YouTube channels such as NBC, Global News, ABC, CBS, and FNC, which continued with the transmission without any impediment.
However, all channels, including RSBN, were transmitting using the same source (which came directly from the Senate feed), so they do not understand how the automated system only detected some channels. While the YouTube representative said there were several affected accounts, they did not offer a list to confirm it.
RSBN has previously had issues with YouTube disabling their livestreams.
Breitbart News, another of the channels affected by the error, had already been the victim of another removal during the Virginia Second Amendment rally transmission on Monday. In this case, the strange thing is that the transmission already had almost two hours on the air and they see it unlikely that it was the same “error” by the copyright system, especially as the footage was all original.
After what happened with the Senate impeachment trial transmission, Breitbart News directly asked YouTube to explain why the majority of those affected were conservative channels, to which, for now, the platform has not responded.
