YouTube temporarily suspended One America News Network's account for violating its COVID-19 rules.
The platform announced that OANN has been suspended for a week and that YouTube demonetized the network's account — its ability to make money off content — on Tuesday, Axios first reported. A YouTube spokeswoman, Ivy Choi, confirmed it to the Washington Examiner.
Choi said in a statement, "Early on in this pandemic, we’ve worked to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation associated with COVID-19 on YouTube. 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."
YouTube has a three-strike policy for users, and each account is granted one warning before strikes begin to be issued. The policy states that once one strike is issued, full privileges will be suspended for a week, which matches the ban on OANN. It would face additional consequences for more strikes.
Choi also said that OANN was demonetized as a result of its repeated violations of the coronavirus misinformation policy.
"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," she added.
Founder and President Charles Herring of OANN did not immediately return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/youtube-suspends-and-demonetizes-oann-over-fake-covid-19-cure-video