Google-owned YouTube has banned One America News Network (OAN) from posting new videos for a week, and demonetized its existing videos, alleging that the broadcasting network — a favorite of President Donald Trump — broke the platform’s coronavirus rules.
The network was an early reporter on the severity of the Chinese virus pandemic, and its reporters called for a travel ban on China long before Democrats and the corporate media.
“We were the first network in the country to have someone call for a travel ban due to the severity of the coronavirus all the way back on Jan 22nd while yall were peddling a sham impeachment,” said OAN correspondent Jack Posobiec in a tweet.
Reuters published this explanation from YouTube for the censorship of OAN:
YouTube said on Tuesday it had barred the right-wing outlet One America News Network from posting new videos for a week after it broke the site’s rules against content that claims there is a guaranteed cure for COVID-19.
A spokeswoman for YouTube, the video-sharing platform owned by Alphabet’s Inc’s Google, said OAN had also been suspended from monetizing its videos due to repeated violations of the COVID-19 misinformation policy and other rules. OAN will have to reapply to be allowed to monetize again.
The YouTube spokeswoman said an OAN video, now removed, had violated its coronavirus misinformation rules by claiming that hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug touted by Trump despite a lack of scientific evidence, was a cure for COVID-19.
The censorship drew condemnation from conservative voices on social media.
“So now the Ministry of Truth is censoring OANN,” said Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. “They will come for you soon. No one is safe.”
“If we don’t begin building and using uncancellable tech half the country will be silenced and crushed. This must be fought, yes, but we need a new companies and infrastructure, period,” said Matthew Peterson, VP of education at the Claremont Institute.
“Media cheers because they don’t give a damn about speech, only power,” said Jon Schweppe, director of policy at the American Principles Project.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. His new book, #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election, which contains exclusive interviews with sources inside Google, Facebook, and other tech companies, is currently available for purchase.
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