The Google-owned video-sharing platform YouTube deleted the British account of Iran's Press TV after Britain's The Times exposed the channel's anti-Israeli propaganda, the British newspaper claimed on Wednesday.
In a report on Wednesday the paper said YouTube had shut down the account of Iran's English-language Press TV after a report by the newspaper exposed how it was being used for pro-Tehran, anti-Israeli propaganda.
Press TV is a state-funded 24-hour English and French news and documentary network and a division of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). It was launched in April 2007 to counter broadcasters such as BBC World News, CNN International and Al Jazeera English.
The original YouTube channel of Press TV was established in 2009 and was closed in September 2013.
A series of new channels opened in its place were suspended in 2013 but not deleted. On January 13, however, all the news reports and documentaries posted by Press TV on YouTube were wiped out without warning.
The new Google ban has yet not affected Press TV's Spanish-language sister-channel, Hispan TV. In April 2019 citing "violation of Policies", Google blocked Press TV and Hispan TV's access to their official accounts including Gmail and said the accounts were disabled and could not be restored because they were used in a manner that violated Google's policies.
Hispan TV began broadcasting in December 2012 and targets mainly Hispanophone Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Argentina and Cuba. IRIB also operates Al-Alam, an Arabic satellite channel. All channels employ foreign journalists as well as Iranians.
In a report in April 2019 The Times of Israel claimed that Google had blocked Hispan TV's access to their account because they published a report claiming that Israel's Health Ministry had granted licenses to several international companies to carry out medical tests on Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons without their knowledge.