YouTube Unblocks WION After 12 Hours Of Campaign And 25,000 Posts in Support Of Channel

YouTube on Saturday unblocked WION it had banned for reporting Russia's statement on the Ukraine war. WION promoted the hashtag #YouTubeUnblockWION to spread the word that went viral and received nearly 25,000 tweets in support overnight.

New Delhi: After a massive viewer-led 12-hour campaign that saw over 25,000 tweets in WION’s support, YouTube on Saturday backed down and unblocked the global channel it had banned for reporting on Russia- Ukraine war. YouTube had blocked WION on March 22, restricting it to post new videos on its channel. WION, while reporting the Russian invasion from the ground, has made sure that its reportage remains balanced and both sides of the story are heard in an unbiased manner.

For the unversed, YouTube had a problem with a video uploaded by WION from March 10 that included two live speeches by Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmitry Kuleba and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

On March 22, WION got a message from YouTube saying that it is blocking the channel from posting any videos. It said the videos violated YouTube’s community guidelines.

After a massive, viewer-led 12-hour campaign that saw over 26K (and counting) tweets in our support, YouTube unblocked WION. This image was created by one of you and it helped a great deal.

We want to reach out to whoever made this impactful image. Was it you? Tell us in reply. pic.twitter.com/dm7GFJ62jO

— WION (@WIONews) March 26, 2022

WION made an appeal to YouTube but it was rejected. WION then wrote to YouTube demanding an explanation.

YouTube said: “Our community guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing, or trivialising well-documented violent events, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, adding,”Under this policy, we have removed content, for example, denying that Russia invaded Ukraine or alleging that Ukrainian victims are crisis actors.”

The video contained Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s speech that stated, “As for your question about whether we are planning to attack other countries. We are not planning to attack other countries. We did not attack Ukraine either. We explained on numerous occasions that there was a situation that posed a direct threat to the security of the Russian Federation.”

For clarification, this was a Russian Minister speaking and not WION’s own views. and neither did the channel endorse it. As a part of unbiased reportage, the channel is bound to show both sides of the story and it played the Russian minister’s interview just like they played the Ukrainian minister’s statement.

WION promoted the hashtag #YouTubeUnblockWION to spread the word that went viral and received nearly 25,000 tweets in support overnight.