YouTube has suspended One America News Network (OANN) from uploading and live streaming for a week, demonetized its channel, and given it a strike for posting a video that violated YouTube’s strict “COVID-19 misinformation” rules.
YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi told Axios that the video-sharing platform took action against OANN because it posted a video promoting a COVID-19 cure.
Not only is OANN being blocked from uploading and live streaming for a week but it’s now unable to earn ad revenue on any of its videos. To start monetizing its videos again, YouTube is requiring OANN to re-apply to the YouTube Partner Program.
YouTube’s actions also put the OANN channel at risk of deletion if it receives further strikes. Under YouTube’s current three strikes system, channels are terminated if they receive three strikes within a 90 day period.
The temporary suspension and demonetization of OANN follows a mainstream media pressure campaign demanding that YouTube take action against another OANN video earlier this month. In the November 4 video, OANN host Christina Bomb declared that Trump won the 2020 US presidential election and accused Democrats of “delaying the results to create confusion.”
Numerous mainstream media outlets complained about the video and reported it to YouTube. When YouTube demonetized the video but left it up, several of these outlets complained that the video-sharing platform hadn’t gone further and taken it down.
YouTube’s actions against OAN are reflective of the growing restrictions YouTube has placed on coronavirus videos this year.
Videos that contain anything contradicting the World Health Organization (WHO) are against YouTube’s policy and are often swiftly censored. Doctors, White House advisors, and public figures have all been censored under YouTube’s far-reaching coronavirus misinformation rules.
Not only is YouTube purging anything that goes against the WHO but it’s also amplifying content that supports the narratives of health authorities such as the WHO by adding pro-vaccine notices below videos and boosting “authoritative” mainstream media outlets that mostly parrot the talking points of these health authorities.
