Internet video streaming platform YouTube suspended the channel of One America News Network or OANN, preventing them from posting videos, livestreaming their content, and updating their channel for one week, which took effect yesterday.
This happened to OANN after the media organization was accused of uploading a video about an allegedly 'fake cure' for the coronavirus. The news media company's YouTube channel, which currently has over 13,000 videos and 1.2 million subscribers as of the writing, has been marked by the video streaming platform to violate the company's COVID-19 misinformation policy. The said policy contains a clause against contents that claim that there is already a guaranteed cure for the virus that is still causing the pandemic today.
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They also stated that the channel has violated their COVID-19 content policy for multiple times now, and the channel not only was suspended for adding more content on their channel, but also from their monetization capability option, or the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) where YouTube channels with a subscriber base of at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 total viewing hours on their existing videos.
YouTube did not specify which video caused the suspension of OANN's channel. Yet it was reported that they already took down the video and is currently not existing on the suspended channel or any other channel on YouTube in particular.
At this rate, OAAN must undergo re-application on YPP if they wish to earn revenue from producing content once the suspension will be lifted despite their current subscriber base count already had them the YouTube Gold Play Button - an award being given to YouTube channels and content creators that have reached a number of at least 1 million total subscribers.
The YouTube Milestones
Other awards such as the Silver Play Button are given to YouTube channels that will reach at least 100,000 subscribers; followed by the Gold Play Button; then the Diamond Play Button which is awarded to YouTube channels that have reached 10 million subscribers, the Custom Creator Button, YouTube channels that has reached a total of 50 million subscribers, and the coveted Red Diamond Button that is awarded to YouTube channels that reached the 100 million subscribers mark.
As of October 2020, there are already 653 channels that reached the Diamond Play Button level, fifteen YouTube channels for the Custom Creator Button including celebrities like Justin Bieber, KPOP sensation Blackpink, and the World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) official YouTube channel. And for the Red Diamond Button award, only two YouTube channels so far in history has made it to this level. These are the channels of Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie, who most people consider the king of YouTube content creation, and the India-based recording label SET India's channel.
Although qualifying for the YPP is now widely considered to be an achievement, having a subscriber base of at least 1,000 is already a difficult thing to do. Some criticizes the program, because of claims that some channels achieve the milestones on YouTube through "bots", wherein programmed bots are used to act as a subscriber on a certain channel, and could also be used for viewer count on videos.
