YouTube deletes 2 news channels depriving 500,000,000 viewers of news choice
YouTube has permanently deleted two news channels, which appear to have reported news in a manner disagreeable to YouTube. Both news channels, which between them share more than half a billion viewers are sister stations of Russian RT News.
The news channels broadcast in German-language and had been listed among top News & Politics channels on the social media platform, with hundreds of millions of views.
The deletion of the news channels, without any explanation provided, other than that they breached community guidance, were done with a switch of a button, depriving viewers of an alternative point of view to that adopted by Google’s preferred news providers.
Previously, one of the channels, RT DE channel was barred from live-streaming for seven days since September 21, on the basis of a strike over “community guidelines” violations, for alleged “medical misinformation” in four videos.
YouTube did not elaborate on what specifically was questionable in the clips or what was the scientific basis for the information broadcasted being disagreeable to YouTube bosses, to the extent that they decided to completely ban the news channel.
Whilst I myself don’t agree with nearly all the political views that are featured on RT News, and whilst I feel that some of the reporting in this news channel are biased, I believe that YouTube must not interfere with the editorial decision of any a news channel.
YouTube should not decide for viewers such as myself which news they need to watch or to what reporting they must believe. Astonishingly, we are yet to hear condemnation of YouTube tyrannical action from some of the most prominent so called free speech promoters in the UK, and particularly from newspapers such as The Guardian.
In the future, I anticipate that YouTube will sanction #news stations such as Fox news , and then channels such as Sky news, in order to create a chilling effect.
Their idea is to create a single stream of news, which adheres to the personal views of Google bosses. This way, YouTube can ensure that the voices of the government, or the “official voices” are the only voices that receive popular exposure.
Being in control of the world’s news agenda, is the most powerful position a tyrant can aim for. The suspension of news channels, which do not adhere to the “official” line is the equivalent of the detention of anti government voices in the 1930s. The deletion of news channels is the 1930s equivalent of an execution of a rough news editor. Watch this space!