Google-owned YouTube censored One America News Network over a video that was not even available to the public without a special link, according to the network.
OAN, a conservative-leaning network that is often touted by President Trump as an alternative to the mainstream cable broadcasters, was hit with a week-long ban by YouTube yesterday, and its videos were demonetized, meaning the network cannot earn ad revenue with its Youtube channel.
The Google-owned video platform said OAN breached its coronavirus rules.
According to OAN, the video that supposedly breached the platform’s rules was not even widely available to the public. It was an “unlisted” video, meaning it was only accessible to people who had the link, and was not available via searches or on OAN’s public YouTube channel.
“YouTube took the extreme action of censoring a national cable news network for a video that was ‘unlisted’ and not available publicly on YouTube,” said OAN in a statement.
“Although OAN will abide by YouTube’s requirements for any video made available on YouTube, OAN will not let YouTube’s arbitrary rules infringe upon its First Amendment editorial rights to inform the public.”
“OAN has been flooded with comments from viewers thanking OAN for its reporting and encouraging us not to be intimidated by Google.”
Although YouTube’s coronavirus rules were the pretext used to censor OAN, the network was one of the first to report on the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, China.
OAN correspondent Jack Posobiec called for a travel ban on China in January, long before any Democrat supported the move.
“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 Posobiec in a tweet yesterday.
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.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.