YouTube took down Tenet Media’s channel on the video-sharing platform Thursday, a day after the right-wing media outlet was linked to a Justice Department indictment alleging Russia funded its operations and pushed it to recruit prominent right-wing online commentators.
YouTube said it took down Tenet Media's channel after the DOJ indictment and “careful review.”
Before its takedown, Tenet’s YouTube channel had garnered around 316,000 subscribers and featured clips, segments and live streams of shows hosted by prominent right-wing pundits including Tim Pool and Benny Johnson.
Users clicking on the channel’s link are now greeted with a message saying it was removed for violating YouTube’s community guidelines.
At the time of publishing, Tenet’s website is still online and it lists Pool, Johnson, Dave Rubin, Lauren Southern, Taylor Hansen and Matt Christiansen as part of its talent roster—despite many of them distancing themselves from the company.
Tenet’s other social media handles, including TikTok, X, Instagram and Facebook, also remain online—but their last posts were made late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Tenet’s video channel on Rumble, which has positioned itself as a YouTube alternative that is “immune to cancel culture,” is still up with all the same videos as its defunct YouTube channel—but only with 11,500 followers.
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In an emailed statement, a YouTube spokesperson said the company was “terminating the Tenet Media channel and four channels operated by its owner Lauren Chen as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations,” after the DOJ indictment and “careful review.”
Although Chen isn’t named in the DOJ’s indictment—which mentions only Founder 1 and Founder 2—the Washington Post reported that she and her husband Liam Donovan are listed as Tenet Media’s founders according to Tennessee corporate records. Chen, a Canadian national, is another prominent right-wing online commentator and YouTuber who produced two shows for Glenn Beck’s Blaze Media. Before it was taken down, her own YouTube channel had over 500,000 subscribers. Blaze Media told CNN it had fired Chen after the indictment was made public and it has also taken down her profile page from their website.
These Right-Wing Pundits Were Allegedly Funded By Russia—What To Know About DOJ Indictment (Forbes)