Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), an independent news network that has built an audience of over 1 million subscribers on YouTube, has announced that it will no longer be streaming most events on YouTube due to a recent controversial rule change that prohibits videos alleging “widespread voter fraud or errors” changed the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election.
Over the last five years, RSBN has become one of the go-to sources for live, on the grounds coverage of President Trump’s rallies and speeches and other conservative events. But because of this YouTube rule change, simply broadcasting Trump’s rallies or covering the ongoing legal challenges to the election results puts RSBN’s content at risk of being deleted.
In its announcement, RSBN wrote that it will stop streaming most events on YouTube because of this rule change and described it as a “sad day.” For now, RSBN is encouraging its YouTube subscribers to watch the broadcasts on Facebook or Twitter.
RSBN has started posting some of its videos to YouTube alternative Rumble and suggested that it plans to live stream on Rumble when this functionality is added.
RSBN is likely to be one of many independent political channels that is forced to either stop broadcasting on YouTube as frequently or even stop using the platform entirely because of this far-reaching rule change.
This change is one of many that has made it increasingly difficult for independent YouTube creators in 2020.
Not only are YouTube’s far-reaching rules preventing creators from uploading videos that challenge or oppose the mainstream narrative on major news stories such as the election results and the coronavirus but they’re also resulting in many popular creators and videos being purged from the platform.
Even when independent creators don’t fall foul of any of YouTube rules, they’re being deboosted so heavily in YouTube search and recommendations that they’re between 10x and 20x times less likely to be recommended than mainstream media outlets.
