YouTube has banned One America News Network (OANN) from uploading new videos and livestreaming for one week, after the Trump-friendly media outlet promoted a fake cure for COVID-19. The news was first reported by Axios on Tuesday.
“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,” a YouTube spokesperson told CNBC.
YouTube did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
The YouTube spokesperson also told CNBC that in light of OANN’s “repeated violations of our Covid-19 misinformation policy and other channel monetization policies,” the right-wing news outlet’s channel is suspended from the YouTube Partner Program, which links up advertisers with channels that have large followings. Because of the ban, OANN won’t be able to monetize its YouTube videos.
YouTube did not specify the specific problematic content that hyped an unproven COVID-19 cure that ultimately led to the tech giant’s decision.
Axios reported that YouTube, unsurprisingly, does not consider OANN an authoritative news source.
YouTube told CNBC that companies will only be readmitted to platform’s partnership program after they’ve resolved the issues that led to the suspension.
