In another act of Big Tech censorship, YouTube has banned the popular pro-life website LifeSiteNews from its platform and completely removed all of the videos posted on its channel.
“YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a temporary ban; every single one of our videos is completely gone,” LifeSiteNews reported Wednesday.
“Thankfully, we have backups of all our videos, but this means hundreds of thousands of people have lost access to our truth-telling content,” staff writers said in an article describing what happened.
The article directs users to watch LifeSiteNews videos on Rumble, a YouTube competitor favored by conservatives concerned about censorship from other social media platforms.
According to LifeSiteNews, the website lost access to “more than 300,000 followers” after being removed from YouTube.
Previously, YouTube suspended LifeSite’s channel for one week last November after allegations of “medical misinformation” were made against a video featuring comments from a medical doctor. The comments were made by Dr. Roger Hodkinson, MA, MB, FRCPC, FCAP, CEO and medical director of Western Medical Assessments, who said there was “utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians” about the coronavirus. He went on to say that the media reaction to and the politics of the coronavirus were “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.” He also said that masks were “utterly useless.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear masks in public settings, at events, and gatherings, or anywhere else they are around people to limit the potential spread of the coronavirus.
On Nov. 18, YouTube also flagged another LifeSite video, titled “Catholic Christmas traditions to instill faith in your kids.” According to LifeSiteNews, that video also received a “medical misinformation” label before YouTube removed the video.
“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,” a spokesperson for Google told TheBlaze.
In a statement made to the Media Research Center, LifeSiteNews editor in chief and co-founder John-Henry Westen said the website remains undaunted by YouTube’s censorship.
“The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Lord! With just over 314,000 subscribers and an average of 50K+ views on each episode of our flagship show, with some of our shows reaching over 2 million views, YouTube de-platformed LifeSiteNews, the world’s #1 pro-life news website,” Westen said.
“LifeSite’s video content can still be accessed directly at LifeSiteNews.com, of course. 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. God’s Word will spread over the whole earth whether Google likes it or not. We are taking legal steps too, of course, so we would appreciate your prayers and any support that you feel called to give.”
YouTube has previously come under fire from conservatives for taking action to suppress content it deems misleading to viewers.
