YouTube says it barred OANN from posting videos for a week and demonetized its content following a video promoting a phony cure for COVID-19
AxiosAshley Gold
Context & Ripple Effects
The suspension lands six weeks after YouTube announced it would [[a:1160896|remove any claims about COVID-19 vaccines that contradict local health authorities or the WHO]] — this is that policy being applied to a named news network rather than anonymous uploads. OANN becomes the most prominent channel yet to lose both upload access and monetization in a single action.
First-order effects
OANN loses a week of uploads and all ad revenue on its existing library, hitting both reach and income simultaneously.
YouTube demonstrates that its October misinformation rules apply to established media partners, not just fringe creators.
Second-order effects
Other networks with COVID-skeptical programming now face the same two-lever penalty structure — demonetization plus timed suspension — raising the cost of borderline health content across the platform.
The precedent hardens into a template: weeks later YouTube applies the identical one-week upload ban to Trump's channel after posts it judged to incite violence, showing the mechanism generalizes beyond health misinformation.
Third-order effects
Enforcement at this scale points toward platforms acting as de facto arbiters of medical and political claims for mass audiences — a role that invites regulatory scrutiny of how strikes are defined and appealed.
The trend: Platform moderation is shifting from case-by-case takedowns to standardized strike-and-demonetize systems applied uniformly to creators, politicians, and news networks alike.
What do 230-haters think is the right policy for this? (1) YouTube MUST host what it believes is potentially dangerous medical disinformation on their property against their will? (2) They can try to protect users, but become ruinously liable if they don't catch everything? https…
Why is it that companies like Youtube, Facebook etc have massive blindspots (not even spots, really) for most misinformation except for medical stuff? Is it because it's (or it used to be) the less politicised science? https://twitter.com/...
Senate Democrats have sent YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki a letter, asking if the company will commit to removing videos with false election information, which the company has faced increasing backlash over in recent weeks. https://www.cnbc.com/...
But YouTube is fine to allow the posting of false and dangerous content about fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Let's not forget. Shame on @google. https://twitter.com/...
As a reminder, YouTube has largely tried to curb election misinfo by burying videos in search/recs. YouTube also has largely avoided Congressional hearings. Here's the Senate letter. https://www.menendez.senate.gov/ ...
NEW - A look at how the top superspreaders of misinformation are responsible for a disproportionate amount of the false posts about voter fraud. Please share! I had to do a lot of math for this story and I HATE math. https://www.nytimes.com/...