A day after Youtube demonetized A Nova Democracia’s channel, the video platform decided today (15/1), without warning, to shut down the entire channel of our tribune because our courageous revolutionary journalistic coverage had allegedly violated the platform’s reactionary security guidelines.
Youtube’s ban prohibits AND from downloading its own journalistic archive. There are more than 15 years of audiovisual production, including exclusive coverage of the crimes of the old Brazilian state against the people and historic moments in the struggle of the masses of our country.
According to YouTube, AND violated the “Violent Criminal Organizations policy”, which states that “you may not publish content on YouTube that supports, promotes or assists violent criminal or extremist organizations. These entities may not use YouTube for any purpose, including recruitment.”
YouTube has only one chance to challenge the decision to close the channel. AND will file a request shortly.
Reactionary guidelines
For the editorial staff of AND, it is only possible to assume that Youtube will consider the historic coverage of our tribune on the revolutionary peasant war waged in the corners of Brazil, in which peasants, indigenous people and quilombolas boldly confront the crimes of the paramilitary gangs of the latifundia (as in the coverage of the peasant struggle in the Manoel Ribeiro and Tiago Campin dos Santos Camps in 2021 and 2022, or the Guarani-Kaiowá struggle in Douradina in 2024) as a violation of reactionary guidelines; or, similarly, that the platform considers AND’s coverage of the Palestinian people’s war of national liberation, which has always included the broadcast of videos by the Palestinian National Resistance, in which Arab guerrillas sweep away the Zionist occupation of their territories with daring military actions, to be a violation of Zionist directives.
On January 14, Youtube demonetized AND’s channel with the same justification. According to Youtube, the edition of the program Plantão Palestina with the title “BBC editor collaborates with Mossad and CIA/Houthis launch 40 missiles” violated Youtube’s “Policy against extremist or violent criminal organizations”. The demonetization also took place without warning: the team only found out about the penalty because, in the channel’s monetization area, the video platform informed them that “You are not eligible for monetization”. Before the video was censored, AND’s channel received monetization from adsense, members’ clubs and other sources of income from Youtube.
International recognition
AND’s YouTube channel was internationally recognized for its daring coverage of police massacres in the favelas (recorded side by side with residents, in the heart of the favelas, and not from helicopters, as in the case of the press monopoly) and in the countryside (such as the 2017 documentary Terra e Sangue, about the Pau D’Arco massacre).
AND was also known worldwide for its coverage of the popular struggle. AND’s videos of the Jornadas of 2013 and 2014 recorded unique moments of the protests exclusively. In addition, AND closely covered several of the favela removals in Rio de Janeiro that took place in preparation for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. You can still find reproductions of some of this coverage on other channels on YouTube.
Since 2023, AND has taken a leap forward in its audiovisual production, with the implementation of daily news programs to deal with the national and international political situation. That same year, following the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, AND inaugurated the Palestine Watch on October 9, initially as part of A Propósito and then as a separate program. There have been more than 200 editions of Palestine Watch since the two programs were separated.
Dozens of interviews
AND has also interviewed dozens of people, including activists involved in popular struggles and important progressive and democratic personalities. On the subject of Palestine alone, AND conducted interviews: with the Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle portal and author of more than 6 books on Palestine, Dr. Ramzy Baroud; with the head of the Palestine Chronicle portal, Dr. Ramzy Baroud. Ramzy Baroud; with the editor-in-chief of The Cradle, Esteban Carillo; with leading journalist Lucia Helena Issa; with the Palestinian extradited from Brazil and university professor in Malaysia, Muslim Ajaar (the only audiovisual interview with him by a Brazilian newspaper); with the president of the Brazil-Palestine Institute, Ahmad Shehada; with the president of the Palestinian Arab Federation of Brazil, Ualid Rabah and others.
Attacks have never stopped production
This is not the first time that AND has been the target of attacks. In the more than 20 years of our newspaper’s history, AND has already had the electricity grid at its main headquarters sabotaged, a Support Committee headquarters set on fire and invaded, our newsroom has faced stings and our correspondents have been the targets of arrests during protests. Even so, the pace of production has never slowed down.
AND’s newsroom reaffirms that Youtube’s reactionary censorship will not impede or reduce in any way the revolutionary journalistic work of A Nova Democracia. As we said in our interview with Esteban Carillo, after asking him about The Cradle’s ban on Instagram, “this is a sign of good journalism, journalism at the service of the people”.
In the same vein, we urge all of AND’s friends, supporters, readers, viewers and collaborators to share the denunciation of the banning of our channel as much as possible and to support AND financially as a way of responding to the Zionist action that aims, by demonetizing and banning the channel, to prevent the work of the revolutionary press. Support can be given through the AND Shop, through our Catarse, which can be accessed at this link.
We will soon be announcing more ways to support our tribune. A Nova Democracia will not rest in its struggle to recover more than 15 years of revolutionary journalistic production at the service of the people.