IN FEBRUARY 2024, without warning, YouTube deleted the account of independent British journalist Robert Inlakesh.
His YouTube page featured dozens of videos, including numerous livestreams documenting Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank. In a decade covering Palestine and Israel, he had captured video of Israeli authorities demolishing Palestinian homes, police harassing Palestinian drivers, and Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian civilians and journalists during protests in front of illegal Israeli settlements. In an instant, all of that footage was gone.
In July, YouTube deleted Inlakesh’s private backup account. And in August, Google, YouTube’s parent company, deleted his Google account, including his Gmail and his archive of documents and writings.
The tech giant initially claimed Inlakesh’s account violated YouTube’s community guidelines. Months later, the company justified his account termination by alleging his page contained spam or scam content.
However, when The Intercept inquired further about Inlakesh’s case, nearly two years after his account was deleted, YouTube provided a separate and wholly different explanation for the termination: a connection to an Iranian influence campaign.
Can I ask a dumb question? Even if this was true and for the sake of argument we assume that the dude is an Iranian propagandist of some kind, so what? Why does that justify removing the account?
Probably because of US sanctions on Iran, which prohibits the delivery of services for individuals or companies in Iran.
“independent British journalist Robert Inlakesh”
I guess they can just decide that anyone they don’t like is Iranian and remove them.
But he’s in Palestine. No?
If he’s an Iranian agent, it might apply anywhere.
I doubt any proof was used or provided though
That’s what’s so fun about relying on private companies for this kind of infrastructure.
Because of good old propaganda. I know, its fucking bullshit.