YouTube bars One America News Network from posting new videos

San Francisco: Google-owned YouTube has temporarily banned far-right One America News Network (OANN) from posting new videos after it found the network was promoting fake cure for Covid-19 via a video.

OANN has also been suspended from the YouTube Partner Programme, the company’s spokesperson Ivy Choi told Axios on Tuesday.

YouTube has earlier been criticised for allowing OANN to spread misinformation using its platform, particularly around coronavirus and the US election.

OANN’s channel will stay online on YouTube but it will be barred from uploading new videos for a week.

YouTube has a “three-strikes” policy before an account is terminated.

This is OANN’s first strike, but it has violated the platform’s Covid-19 misinformation policy before too, according to the report.

YouTube last week started adding information about Covid-19 vaccines in a second link to its fact-check panels which are shown below the videos on coronavirus and Covid-19 related themes.

Earlier this year, YouTube started adding “information panels” to videos and searches about COVID-19, directing viewers to authoritative sources in an attempt to combat misinformation about the disease.

The fact-check information panels are one of the tools YouTube has introduced in the last two years aimed at counteracting fake information around Covid-19.