YouTube has temporarily suspended right-wing outlet One America News Network (OANN) for promoting a false COVID-19 cure. OANN’s channel will stay online, but it will be prevented from uploading new videos for a week, and it’s been removed from YouTube’s advertising partner program.
YouTube suspends One America News for one week after it promoted a fake COVID-19 cure
It will have to reapply to monetize videos
It will have to reapply to monetize videos
Illustration by William Joel / The Verge
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
Axios reported the news today, and YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi confirmed it to The Verge. “After careful review, we removed a video from OANN and issued a strike on the channel for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content claiming there’s a guaranteed cure,” Choi says. “Additionally, due to repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy and other channel monetization policies, we’ve suspended the channel from the YouTube Partner Program and as a result, its monetization on YouTube.”
OANN has repeatedly tested YouTube’s policies, most recently around the US presidential election. YouTube took a more hands-off approach to election misinformation than Facebook and Twitter, allowing a video where OANN falsely claimed President Donald Trump won the election. It defended its policy by emphasizing that it promotes “authoritative news organizations,” a category that YouTube says doesn’t include OANN. After its COVID-19 video, OANN will have to reapply for the partner program if it wants to monetize videos, and it will receive one strike under YouTube’s three-strikes policy for termination.
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