YouTube has barred One America News Network, a cable TV news channel, from posting new videos for a week after it uploaded a video promoting a cure for COVID-19.
“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,” said Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, in a statement to Television News Daily.
Choi added: “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.”
Channel creators who are suspended from YouTube Partner Program can re-apply for access. YouTube has a three strike policy before an account is terminated, and strikes carry penalties.
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On the YouTube site, OANN says it has 1.22 million subscribers, having posted 13,854 videos.
OANN has around 25 million traditional pay TV subscribers on cable, satellite and telco services, according to estimates.
In May, reports surfaced that an investor group aligned with Donald Trump Jr. and Hicks Equity Partners, a private equity firm, had taken an investment position with OANN. Herring Networks, owner of OANN, said the report in Vanity Fair was false, denying that any transaction had occurred.
Since February, YouTube has manually reviewed and removed 200,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading COVID-19 information.
YouTube says since January 2019 it began reducing recommendations of "borderline" content or videos.
Total time watched for content from recommendations has dropped by over 70% in the U.S.