Right-wing YouTube channels tied to Russia indictments removed

YouTube has “terminated” Tenet Media, as well as other channels managed by conservative commentator Lauren Chen who was implicated earlier this week in allegations of Russians paying for right-wing messaging on American TV.

Last month, YouTube "terminated" Tenet Media and four other channels of right-wing media entrepreneurлеманны instead. (Dado Ruvi/Reuters)

YouTube on Friday removed a number of right-wing channels associated with claims from the Justice Department that Russian government agents were paying U.S. far-right influencers to produce content.
YouTube “terminated” Tenet Media shotcaller Lauren Chen and four more channels of the right-minded media entrepreneur this week as part of an investigation into corporate conduct, according to a spokesperson who emailed that statement on Thursday.
The charges, unsealed on Wednesday by the Justice Department, also detail how two employees of RT — its founder and a documentary filmmaker — funneled money to an American media organization in Tennessee without disclosing it here. The government did not explicitly mention Tenet, but a quote from the indictment is consistent with it being the media organization. Since then, right-wing influencers have pinpointed Tenet as the company in the indictment.
According to Tennessee business records, Tenet Media is owned by Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan. Chen's deal as a contributor with conservative media entity Blaze TV was terminated Thursday [,] Semafor reported. The three men named in the latest indictment allegedly knew their money was Moscow-sourced; according to texts they sent, even privately acknowledged that Muscovite-enriched messages were funneled through them.
Tenet Media didn't immediately respond to a request for comment sent through a contact form on its site.
Tenet Media-produced videos were mostly shared on YouTube and remain popular in conservative media circles, among personalities who worked with Tenet—including Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin—around August 2019. YouTube had pulled RT's channels, which were wildly popular on the platform across the world in the weeks following Russia 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
It also is the last large western social media platform that can be accessed from within Russia, where it enjoys strong popularity. However, in the last few months sites have faced more throttling from the Russian government which degrades quality for a lot of users across Russia.