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Censorship against defenders of conservative values continues to be forged and is carried out from social platforms. On this occasion, YouTube suspended the Spanish channel of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) for publishing pro-life videos.
“YouTube penalized this April 1 the EWTN Spanish channel for the publication of some pro-life programs, a decision with which it prevents the live broadcast of Pope Francis’ activities during Holy Week, in this time of pandemic and where there is more spiritual need in people,” reported ACI Prensa, a Catholic news agency based in Lima that is part of the Eternal Word Television Network or EWTN.
According to the complaint, the suspension against EWTN’s Spanish-language channel “was due to the publication of two editions of the program Informe Provida, hosted by Patricia Sandoval and Astrid Bennett Gutiérrez, with a great acceptance by Internet users who defend values such as life and family.”
EWTN released a statement through its Twitter account in which it denounced the suspension of the YouTube account and invited Catholics around the world to follow the activities through its website.
“Important notice. YouTube has suspended us from uploading our videos and live streaming on our page,” EWTN denounced in the statement. “For that reason many Catholics will not be able to participate in the activities by Week from the Vatican using that medium.”
“But we are still on the air. Let your acquaintances know that they can still access EWTN’s live Spanish-language signal. See if we are on their cable systems. You can also do it from our website,” the statement highlights.
The suspension against EWTN is not the first against a “pro-life” channel
Censorship on YouTube against pro-life, conservative and pro-family channels is starting to become an everyday occurrence. Last month, in mid-February, the platform removed the pro-life group’s LifeSiteNews channel.
“Google-owned YouTube totally deplatformed LifeSiteNews, offering no warning or explanation, the pro-life outlet said Wednesday. Before the website’s channel was pulled from the largest video-sharing platform on the internet, LifeSiteNews had garnered more than 314,000 subscribers,” The Federalist explained.
Doug Mainwaring, who is part ofLifeSiteNews, wrote a post on the pro-life group’s blog announcing the YouTube censorship.
“If you are a conservative Christian, the tech giants hate you and want to eradicate you. They clearly think that you shouldn’t exist. You are being driven out of the modern public square, the internet, where only liberal voices are permitted to speak,” Mainwaring wrote.
Separately, a YouTube spokesperson told The Federalist “that LifeSiteNews was ripped off the platform for accumulating too many infractions under its strikes system.”
“We terminated the channel LifeSiteNews Media for repeatedly violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content that promotes prevention methods that contradict local health authorities or WHO,” the company wrote in an email. “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.”
Other YouTube censorship cases involve two videos removed from the Senate and all videos of former President Donald Trump at CPAC 2021, as well as the two-week suspension of the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) account.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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