SMNI terminated by YouTube for violating terms of service

SMNI has been removed from the platform.

The YouTube channel of local television station SMNI has been terminated by the platform. In an observation on Friday, July 7, onlookers notice that the channel, which had more than a million subscribers, had gone missing. When entering the channel’s link, a message appears on-screen, saying that the YouTube channel was terminated by YouTube for “violation of its Terms of Service.”

Apart from SMNI, the takedown also covered other channels associated with the network and its owner Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. This included the official page of his church Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the SMNI show account of former government official Lorraine Badoy, ‘Laban Kasama ng Bayan’.

Google, YouTube’s parent firm, has also given the reason for the termination of the accounts, saying that it is due to the platform’s compliance with US sanctions laws and its own Terms of Service. Google refers to the US Executive Order (EO) No. 13818, which sanctions Quiboloy for “his connection to serious human rights abuse.” The said EO took effect in December 2022. The church figure has also been issued a federal warrant of arrest in 2021, after being charged for a list of cases, which includes sex trafficking and bulk cash smuggling to the United States.

Apart from the three YouTube channels, Quiboloy’s personal YouTube channel under his name was first struck down by YouTube in June, following a report from a Twitter user. TikTok, just last Monday, has also taken down Quiboloy’s account which beared the username @pastor_acq.

Back to YouTube, when one searches for SMNI, an account with the name ‘SMNI News’ and username ‘@smninewsofficial’ appears. Currently, the said account only has one video uploaded, and more than a hundred subscribers. It was only just created yesterday, July 6, 2023. As of press time, no party, including SMNI, has claimed the channel as theirs.

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