YouTube bans alleged Russia-linked right-wing channels

The video hosting site has “terminated” several accounts, including Tenet Media’s

YouTube has removed five right-wing political channels linked to what the US Department of Justice (DOJ) claims is a Russian effort to sow division in America and influence its domestic landscape.

In a statement cited by the Washington Post on Thursday, the Google-owned video hosting service said it had “terminated” the accounts of the Tenet Media company and four other entities linked to conservative commentator Lauren Chen in a bid “to combat coordinated influence operations.”

The move comes after the DOJ on Wednesday charged two Russians, identified as RT employees, with violating the Foreign Agents Act, money laundering, and illegally funneling millions of dollars to US-based entities to promote Moscow’s narrative on various politically charged issues. 

While the DOJ did not directly name the company which was allegedly involved in those activities, saying only that it was based in Tennessee and had posted around 2,000 videos since its launch in November 2023, some observers and social media users suggested that the indictment referred to Tenet Media.

The company was founded by Chen and her husband Liam Donovan in early 2022 and often features right-wing influencers that provide commentary on such topics as immigration, inflation, and foreign policy.

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Following the indictment, conservative outlet Blaze Media said, as quoted by Semafor, that it had terminated a contact with Chen, whom it described as “an independent contractor,” without providing an explanation for the move.

In a separate development, the US Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned several Russian nationals, including RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and three other senior RT employees, over alleged efforts to influence the US election.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has denounced the new restrictions, arguing that the move “testifies to the irreversible degradation of the democratic state in the United States and its transformation into a totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship.”