OAN, touted by Donald Trump for its ‘Great News,’ suspended from YouTube for COVID-19 misinformation
One America News Network, a right-wing cable network touted by President Donald Trump, has been suspended from YouTube after repeatedly posting misinformation about COVID-19.
“After careful review, we removed a video from OANN and issued a strike on the channel for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content claiming there’s a guaranteed cure,” Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokesperson, said in a statement emailed to USA TODAY.
Citing repeated violations of YouTube’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, Choi said OANN’s account has also been suspended from the program that allows it to monetize its channel.
OANN had previously received a warning about COVID-19 misinformation and will now be prevented from uploading videos to its channel for one week, according to YouTube. The site has a three-strike disciplinary process that can end in a channel’s termination.
Cracking down:YouTube will remove videos making harmful claims rooted in conspiracy theories
The network, also known as OAN, has developed a reputation for airing baseless conspiracy theories and spreading false information, including about COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election.
In May, Trump tweeted his support for the network, calling it “Great News, not Fake News.”
NewsGuard — a network of journalists that evaluates news sites for reliability — urges readers and advertisers to “proceed with caution” with OAN, per The New York Times.
Specifically, NewsGuard found that OAN “severely violates basic standards of credibility and transparency” and regularly includes “false or distorted information.”
It has also spread numerous debunked claims since the election, including about election software by Dominion Voting Systems — which did not delete or change votes, per a USA TODAY fact check.
Contributing: Camille Caldera, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
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