YouTube banned pro-life website LifeSiteNews from its platform and removed all of the videos posted to its channel this week after previously suspending the group for sharing “medical misinformation.”
LifeSiteNews lost access to “more than 300,000 followers” after YouTube deleted its account and all of its videos. The pro-life group directed users to Rumble, a conservative alternative to YouTube, where all of its back-up videos have been uploaded.
This is not the first time Big Tech has censored LifeSiteNews.
YouTube banned the group’s channel for one week last November after LifeSiteNews posted a video featuring comments from Dr. Roger Hodkinson, CEO and medical director of Western Medical Assessments.
Hodkinson said the coronavirus pandemic has been spurred on by “utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians.”
He went on to say that the media’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic is “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public” and called face masks “utterly useless.”
YouTube also flagged another LifeSite video, titled “Catholic Christmas traditions to instill faith in your kids,” on Nov. 18. That video also received a “medical misinformation” label before being removed.
A spokesperson for the company said LifeSiteNews was permanently banned because it posted three videos that featured “medical misinformation” within a 90-day period.
“In accordance with our long standing strikes system, we terminated the channel LifeSite News Media for repeatedly violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content that promotes prevention methods that contradict local health authorities or WHO.
Any channel that violates our COVID-19 misinformation policy will receive a strike, which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming.
Channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube,” the Google spokesperson said in a statement.
LifeSiteNews editor-in-chief and co-founder John-Henry Western said the website remains undaunted by YouTube’s censorship.
“LifeSite’s video content can still be accessed directly at LifeSiteNews.com, of course,” Western said. “We will continue to speak the truth of Christ and will not give in to the threats of Big Tech and the censors who wish to remove Biblical truths [from] the public square.”
