YouTube removes The Ron Paul Institute’s channel without warning; YouTube calls it a mistake and restores the channel after backlash

YouTube strikes again! As part of its effort to crackdown on anti-vaccine misinformation, YouTube announced yesterday it would block all anti-vaccine content on its video platform.

As we reported yesterday, the Google-owned video platform also said it is moving beyond its ban on false information about the COVID vaccines to include content that contains misinformation about other approved vaccines. Immediately after the announcement, the first channels YouTube banned were the channels of prominent anti-vaccine activists Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola.

Today, YouTube banned another channel. But this time, it’s The Ron Paul Institute’s channel, a channel owned by former Presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul. In a post on Twitter, Dr. Paul said:

“Very shocked that @YouTube has completely removed the Channel of my Ron Paul Institute: no warning, no strikes, no evidence. Only explanation was “severe or repeated violations of our community guidelines.” Channel is rarely used. The appeal was automatically rejected. Help?”

Very shocked that @YouTube has completely removed the Channel of my Ron Paul Institute: no warning, no strikes, no evidence. Only explanation was "severe or repeated violations of our community guidelines." Channel is rarely used. The appeal was automatically rejected. Help? pic.twitter.com/CuvGAe1bVf

— Ron Paul (@RonPaul) September 30, 2021

About an hour after Dr. Ron Paul’s viral tweet announcing YouTube had terminated his channel’s account, the Ron Paul Institute’s channel suddenly and without explanation appears to have been restored. YouTube called it a mistake and restated the channel. Below is a tweet from YouTube.

“Heard back from our team that this was a mistake and your channel has been reinstated. Thanks for being patient while we sorted this out – we’ll be reaching out via email shortly in case you have any questions.”

Heard back from our team that this was a mistake and your channel has been reinstated. Thanks for being patient while we sorted this out – we'll be reaching out via email shortly in case you have any questions.

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) September 30, 2021

The initial announcement fromYouTube about the suspension by Paul had immediately triggered an uproar and demands of answers from the Google-owned platform.

It’s still unclear as to why the Ron Paul Institute’s channel was suspended in the first place but may have been ‘flagged’ for Covid ‘misinformation,’ given YouTube’s crackdown announcement that came out yesterday.