Piers Morgan has now executed his shift to YouTube after being fired by Rupert Murdoch from TalkTV 2 years into his 3-year deal. It’s not looking rosy for the YouTuber as he kicks off his new career talking to exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Without a miracle Piers can’t ratchet up the views to support his operation…
The average YouTuber earns about $0.01-$0.03 per ad view, so if Morgan is racking up one-million view videos he can hope to receive up to $30,000. The problem is, he isn’t. Morgan’s videos in the last week average around 500,000 views. That’s not going to put bread on tables…
Guido hears Piers’ 17-strong staff are in a panic about Uncensored‘s prospects and are firing off begging emails to other teams at TalkTV to get shifts. Some are considering jumping ship to better-performing GB News. Revenue-strapped TalkTV can’t support them all…
Starmer’s number one pitch to the public is that Labour is a “changed party” since he took the reins, especially when it comes to dealing with the Corbynites and his purge of antisemitism within the party. Though that’s been a little difficult to prove in light of recent events…
It seems instead Labour have resorted to concealing parts of their history, choosing to “unlist” almost all videos on their YouTube channel from 2010-2020 – meaning they won’t show up in searches, though they are still online. No surprise that Corbyn-era videos have been unlisted, though Miliband may be a little hurt that his are gone too…
The Tories have left all of their all videos up. Even Liz Truss’…
This morning, Google-owned YouTube deleted the Novara Media channel, supposedly without warning nor explanation. Despite obvious political differences between Guido and Novara, if that is true it is manifestly wrong for them to have been silenced by YouTube. As it was when TalkRadio’s channel was deleted back in January.
As Novara note, they are “among the top 50 most watched news and politics channels in the UK” and are already regulated by IMPRESS. Users trying to access the channel are told by YouTube:
“This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.”
Guido hopes it won’t be long before we see a rapid u-turn and the channel’s restoration emerges from YouTube HQ…
UPDATE: Gary, Novara’s video editor, has hopefully had a moment of realisation today:
https://twitter.com/ggaaarrryyyy/status/1274309318867894272 https://twitter.com/ggaaarrryyyy/status/1452961134580011014UPDATE: For our take on the freedom of speech implications of this takedown, watch our latest Guido Talks.
Google-owned YouTube in the early hours of this morning removed the TalkRADIO channel from its platform. YouTube had been where TalkRADIO streamed its live video content and kept an archive of old shows. The channel had accumulated tens of millions of views and 250,000 subscribers. YouTube has simply said the account was “terminated for violating YouTube’s community guidelines.”
The fact the termination came shortly after the UK Government announced a third lockdown is raising eyebrows. TalkRADIO has been exceptionally critical of lockdown policy.
YouTube’s Covid-19 guidelines instituted in May 2020 states that “YouTube doesn’t allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.” This includes bans on:
- Content that discourages people from consulting a medical professional or seeking medical advice.
- Content that promotes diagnostic methods that contradict local health authorities or WHO.
- Content that disputes the efficacy of local health authorities’ or WHO’s guidance on physical distancing or self-isolation measures to reduce transmission of COVID-19.
If a channel violates policies such as this three times, it will be terminated. This appears to be what happened last night.
UPDATE: To be clear, Guido is not disputing that YouTube are within their rights, it is their property. Just questioning the wisdom given the platform’s dominance of the video space in the public square.
UPDATE: TalkRADIO has released a statement on the matter:
“talkRADIO YouTube has removed talkRADIO’s channel from its platform. talkRADIO broadcasts specific programmes and a live stream from its studio on its YouTube channel. talkRADIO also broadcasts on DAB and is Ofcom regulated.
A spokesperson for talkRADIO said: “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.”
UPDATE: TalkRADIO has released a second statement:
“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.”“
The French parliament has passed a ‘YouTube’ tax: a levy of 2% on advertising receipts of websites hosting videos, rising to 10% when those videos include adult material. News is exempted so the tax is going to hit the French digital economy rather than the media, the proposal seeks to raise revenue from the left’s pantomime baddies Google, Amazon and Facebook, as well as obvious targets like YouTube, Netflix and Vimeo. Remember when Project Fear told us Britain’s digital economy would pack up after Brexit and move to techno-chic European cities like Paris? Not when the French can always be relied on to push in-Seine policies like this…
If an MP had spent a whopping £7,000 of taxpayers’ money on top tech gear, “comms management” and social media training, you would expect to see some results. Ruth Cadbury billed the taxpayer for a Macbook Pro, an iPad Air 2 and an office full of new computers, as well as funnelling £2,575 to former Gordon Brown SpAd Caroline Badley to teach her, among other things, how to use social media. Your money well spent? After the social media splurge Ruth has a measly 680 Facebook followers, just 5,000 odd Twitter followers, and a grand total of zero YouTube subscribers. Is this taxpayer cash actually being spent on anything or is it just lining the pockets of a Labour crony?
