YouTube U-turn: TalkRadio reinstated after Covid rules criticism

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Google has made a U-turn and reinstated TalkRadio’s YouTube channel after it was shut down amid claims the broadcaster ‘violated’ the website’s ‘community guidelines’ by airing criticism of coronavirus lockdowns.

News UK, which owns the radio station, had been urgently seeking a full explanation from the tech giant about the ‘nature of the breach’ that led to the account being removed from its platform. 

In what appeared to be an extraordinary clampdown, Google terminated the station’s YouTube channel at around 1am, reportedly for violating its ‘community guidelines’, according to Guido Fawkes.   

But TalkRadio’s YouTube channel is now back online, following a freedom of speech backlash led by senior minister Michael Gove and actor Laurence Fox, with civil liberties groups comparing Google’s ‘chilling attack’ to Chinese-style censorship. 

A YouTube spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘TalkRadio’s YouTube channel was briefly suspended, but upon further review, has now been reinstated. 

‘We quickly remove flagged content that violate our Community Guidelines, including COVID-19 content that explicitly contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO). 

‘We make exceptions for material posted with an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purpose, as was deemed in this case.’  

TalkRadio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer today denied that the broadcaster had flouted YouTube’s community guidelines, tweeting: ‘We simply challenge the evidence that lockdowns are a proportionate response to the Covid virus. It’s called free speech.’

The station has interviewed lockdown sceptics during the pandemic who doubt that massive restrictions on public life implemented by western governments can suppress the disease. 

In October 2020, the WHO said in a statement that lockdowns were needed to ‘suppress the virus and avoid health systems being overwhelmed’, but the measures were ‘not sustainable solutions because of their significant economic, social and broader health impacts’.  

Dissenting experts who have challenged the lockdown policy have included Oxford epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta, who co-authored the anti-lockdown Great Barrington Declaration, and Irish engineer Ivor Cummins. 

Some of TalkRadio’s presenters, including Ms Hartley-Brewer, Mike Graham and Dan Wootton, have  criticised government measures to slow the spread of coronavirus as excessive or ill-targeted. 

Mr Graham has invited Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens onto his Independent Republic show every Monday for nearly a year to discuss the Government’s handling of the crisis. 

The radio station used YouTube to stream its live video content and archive old shows, and accrued tens of millions of views and 250,000 subscribers as its popularity soared last year. 

YouTube’s policies are supposedly in place to ‘protect’ its ‘community’, which means stopping the spread of misinformation about coronavirus along with conspiracy theories, hate speech or ‘other harmful content’. 

The company reviews each video that is flagged and will remove a video if it is deemed to violate these policies, issuing a strike. 

TalkRadio had issued a statement earlier today saying: ‘TalkRadio has not yet received any explanation about what aspect of the guidelines it is alleged that we have breached.

‘The channel is still removed by Google/YouTube.’

A spokesman for TalkRadio said: ‘YouTube is making decisions about which opinions the public are allowed to hear, even when they are sourced to responsible and regulated news providers.

‘This sets a dangerous precedent and is censorship of free speech and legitimate national debate.’

A spokesperson had earlier told MailOnline: ‘We urgently await a detailed response from Google/YouTube about the nature of the breach that has led to our channel being removed from its platform.

‘TalkRadio is an Ofcom-licensed and regulated broadcaster and has robust editorial controls in place, taking care to balance debate. 

‘We regularly interrogate government data and we have controls in place, use verifiable sources and give space to a careful selection of voices and opinions.’ 

TalkRadio later tweeted a poll which asked: ‘Will Britain’s freedoms ever fully return?’ 

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, which regulates TalkRadio, said: ‘This was a decision for YouTube. 

‘Like other UK stations, TalkRadio’s radio channel comes under our Broadcasting Code. When we assess programmes under our rules, we take account of a broadcaster’s right to freedom of expression, and the right of listeners to receive information and ideas.’  

YouTube has implemented a ‘COVID-19 medical misinformation policy’ which allows it to ban ‘content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authority information or World Health Organization (WHO) medical information about COVID-19’.

Examples of content which is banned from YouTube include ‘denial that COVID-19 exists’, ‘claims that people have not died from COVID-19’, and ‘videos alleging that social distancing and self-isolation are not effective in reducing the spread of the virus’. 

It warns YouTube users that it will remove content which violates the policy and give them a warning with no penalty if it is a first-time violation.

Google has a three-strike policy where channels that break its community guidelines three times within a 90-day period can be permanently banned. 

The tech giant has previously banned conspiracy theorist David Icke and suspended One America News Network for breaches of its Covid rules. 

However, a YouTube webpage states that the video streaming site is committed to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, claiming: ‘We believe people should be able to speak freely, share opinions, foster open dialogue, and that creative freedom leads to new voices, formats and possibilities.’

It also claims: ‘We believe everyone should have easy, open access to information and that video is a powerful force for education, building understanding, and documenting world events, big and small.’

Ofcom has also pledged to crack down on coronavirus misinformation that could cause serious harm, though no TalkRadio content about the disease has been subject to investigation by the watchdog. 

Michael Gove today blasted ‘Big Tech censorship’, telling Ms Hartley-Brewer on TalkRadio that lockdown critics ‘should be heard’.

‘I don’t believe in censorship, and we have a free and fair press, and we have commentators and interviewers of distinction who do criticise the Government’s position’, the Cabinet Office minister said. 

‘I respectfully disagree with them but I think it’s important that their voices are heard and that debate takes place.’ 

Ms Hartley-Brewer later tweeted that no one at the station ‘has ever endangered any lives or worked against the NHS’, adding: ‘Free speech, debate and questioning policies that destroy lives, livelihoods and freedoms are a good thing.’

Actor Laurence Fox, who has also criticised shutdowns, warned: ‘This is just the beginning’ – in a suggestion that more online anti-lockdown rhetoric could be removed.  

Toby Young, director-general of the Free Speech Union, called Google’s move ‘an assault on the freedom of the press’. 

Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch said the removal of the channel was ‘a bold censorship move that would make China proud’.  

Director Silkie Carlo told MailOnline: ‘YouTube’s termination of TalkRadio is evidence, if needed, that Big Tech censorship is out of control. 

‘This chilling attack on a broadcaster is the type of thing you see in China. It is no coincidence that TalkRadio is one of the loudest critics of the Government’s mismanagement of the pandemic, nor that the Government is pressuring Big Tech companies to increase censorship under ‘online harms’ policies.  

‘This assault on free expression must be resisted and overturned.’ 

Triggernometry YouTube channel host Konstantin Kisin said: ‘Today is the day we can all be 100% certain that free speech is over’. 

It comes as Mr Gove today admitted there was ‘no certainty’ that the brutal squeeze imposed by Boris Johnson on England last night will be eased at the end of February as hoped.

The PM set a goal of giving first doses of vaccine to more than 13 million vulnerable people over the next seven weeks, with doubts already voiced over whether it is possible.

But Mr Gove cautioned that even in the best case scenario not ‘all’ of the curbs will go, as he braced the weary public for a long haul to combat the fast-spreading new variant of coronavirus. 

Under the new guidance, primary and secondary schools will close, with only the vulnerable and offspring of key workers allowed to go in. 

Nurseries can stay open, but university students are being told to stay at home and study remotely – while GCSE and A-level exams will not go ahead as planned. 

Non-essential retail, all hospitality, gyms and swimming pools will be ordered to close – with Rishi Sunak due to lay out another package of support today amid growing fears about the impact on the economy.

Cafes, bars and restaurants will be allowed to serve takeaway – but in a tightening from the draconian measures last spring, they will not be allowed to serve any alcohol. 

Vulnerable people are being told to shield where possible.

The public will once again only be allowed to leave home for one of five reasons: to go to work if essential, shop for necessities, exercise – allowed with one other person from another household, care for someone, or to seek medical help or flee threat such as domestic violence.

Communal worship can continue with social distancing in place.

Those who break the rules face a £200 for the first offence, doubling for further offences up to a maximum of £6,400.