YouTube Permanently Bans Right Wing Watch, a Media Watchdog Devoted to Exposing Right-Wing Conspiracies

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2021-06-28 18:00:05

Right Wing Watch has been banned while the right-wing extremists they merely exposed via the platform continue to publish misinformation on YouTube.

According to screenshots posted by RWW, the Google-owned video platform informed the group that their official YouTube channel would be permanently removed from the site due to numerous violations of its community guidelines.

According to Right Wing Watch, their appeal of the suspension was also denied by YouTube, which again claimed that the watchdog group—which monitors disinformation, conspiracies, and violent rhetoric from far-right media outlets and personalities—was in violation of its guidelines and terms of service.

“Our efforts to expose the bigoted view and dangerous conspiracy theories spread by right-wing activists has now resulted in @YouTube banning our channel and removing thousands of our videos,” Right Wing Watch wrote on Monday. “We attempted to appeal this decision, and YouTube rejected it.”

Right Wing Watch senior fellow Kyle Mantyla told The Daily Beast that this had been an ongoing problem with YouTube for years, despite their efforts to make clear to the platform that their videos worked to expose extremism and contained disclaimers to that effect.