YouTube Rejects Consortium News Appeal
February 26, 2021
The social media company says it carefully reviewed the content of the
banned CN Live! episode; says it won't be restored and that a strike will
remain against CN-an impossible decision if the entire video was indeed
carefully reviewed.
A screenshot of Greg Palast speaking on the CN Live! episode banned by
YouTube.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
YouTube has rejected an appeal by Consortium News, has refused to restore an
episode of CN Live! it banned and will maintain a week-long suspension and a
strike against CN's YouTube channel. With three strikes, CN Live! could have
its channel, with hundreds of videos, deleted.
YouTube wrote:
We have reviewed your appeal for the following content:
Video: CN Live! S2E26 Voter Suppression in Georgia - with Greg Palast
We reviewed your content carefully, and have confirmed that it violates our
spam, deceptive practices and scams policy. We know this is probably
disappointing news, but it's our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe
place for all.
How this affects your channel
We won't be putting your content back up on YouTube.
If your appeal was for a warning, you will not be given another warning in
the future.
If your appeal was for a strike, the strike will remain on your channel.
YouTube's statement that it "carefully" "reviewed" the episode is patently
untrue. A careful review of the episode, which aired on Jan. 14, would have
clearly demonstrated that the program was about voter suppression in the
Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections in Georgia. It begins with a clip showing
Trump supporters claiming voter fraud in the November election but after
1m19s goes on to refute that claim, reporting instead that voter suppression
by Republicans had taken place in Georgia.
It is literally impossible that anyone at YouTube could have watched even
ten minutes of the video and come to their conclusion. The YouTube-banned
episode can be watched in its entirety here on Twitter:
YouTube said that Consortium News had violated this policy:
"Spam, deceptive practices and scams
Content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or
glitches changed the outcome of the U.S. 2020 presidential election is not
allowed on YouTube."
It appears that just reporting on claims that the 2020 election was stolen,
without supporting those claims, is enough for either a YouTube algorithm or
human reviewer to banish a video
Media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN and other mainstream media,
when reporting on the 2020 election mention or show video of Donald Trump
and his supporters making their claim of a stolen election before saying
that the claim is untrue. In this story just four days ago, CNN showed a
video clip of Trump saying the election was stolen. The report quoted
Justice Clarence Thomas saying election fraud is real.
CNN and numerous television outlets repeatedly aired parts of Trump's Jan. 6
speech in which he claimed the election was stolen. This is precisely the
kind of reporting CN engaged in for about one minute of an hour-long
program.
Consortium News' CN Live! had been planning a debate between a supporter
and detractor of the claim that the election was stolen. Clearly that would
bring a second strike against Consortium News.
It is a particular affront to imply that Consortium News has made YouTube an
unsafe place for its viewers. YouTube should clearly not be engaged in
censoring news reports on behalf of a U.S. political party, which now
controls both houses of Congress and the White House. With this incident
YouTube has clearly shown it is incompetent to carry out the task it should
not have been given in the first place.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former UN
correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other
newspapers. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London
and began his professional career as a stringer for The New York Times. He
can be reached at joelauria@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and followed on Twitter
@unjoe