After 12 hours of campaign and 25K posts in support, tech giant YouTube unblocks WION

After a massive viewer-led 12-hour campaign that saw over 25,000 tweets in WION's support, YouTube on Saturday backed down and unblocked the global channel it had banned for reporting Russia's statement on the Ukraine war without bias.

WION, while reporting the Russian invasion from the ground, has made sure that its reportage remains balanced and both sides of the story are heard in an unbiased manner. However, on March 22, YouTube blocked WION allowing no new video uploads ensuring a total block.

And now, after massive support garnered from its users for its campaign asking for YouTube to unblock WION, the Big Tech giant has backed down. WION is now back online on YouTube after it was unblocked. 

YouTube apparently had a problem with one of WION’s videos dating back to March 10 which showed two live speeches — one by Ukraine's foreign minister Dmitry Kuleba and another by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. 

Also Read: YouTube blocks WION for reporting Russian statement

On March 22, WION got a message from YouTube saying that it is blocking the channel from posting any videos. It said the videos violated YouTube's community guidelines.

WION made an appeal to YouTube but it was rejected. WION then wrote to YouTube demanding an explanation.

YouTube said: "Our community guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing, or trivialising well-documented violent events, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, adding,"Under this policy, we have removed content, for example, denying that Russia invaded Ukraine or alleging that Ukrainian victims are crisis actors."

WION makes sure that the reportage reaches every corner of the world and that it should be easily accessible to all and that it should inform your opinion.

Watch | Gravitas: YouTube blocks WION for reporting Russian statement

In the video, Sergei Lavrov had said: "As for your question about whether we are planning to attack other countries. We are not planning to attack other countries. We did not attack Ukraine either. We explained on numerous occasions that there was a situation that posed a direct threat to the security of the Russian Federation."

These were spoken by the Russian foreign minister, not WION. And neither did WION endorse it. WION simply broadcast the Russian foreign minister's statement just like the Ukrainian minister's statement was played.

#YouTubeUnblockWION went viral on Twitter as the channel received nearly 25,000 tweets in support overnight.

WION neither believes in censorship nor in telling half the story. 

Block out everything Russia says, promote everything the West says. WION does not subscribe to that sort of journalism. The objective of the channel is to remain balanced.