Last week, Youtube terminated Mereja TV’s channel that has 217,000 subscribers after the channel started to show a television program hosted by a prominent Ethiopian Orthodox Christian scholar Zemedkun Bekele. Youtube arbitrarily terminated the channel at the behest of the Ethiopian government and its supporters without warning or without specifying any policy violation.

About a month earlier, Youtube had terminated Mr. Zemedkun’s own channel. Again, without any warning or explanation.

Mereja TV’s Youtube Channel belongs to a television station that serves Ethiopia and eastern African region. It has tens of millions of viewers. For Youtube to arbitrarily terminate a channel that belongs to a national tv station with tens of millions of viewers is unthinkable if the media company were American or European.

When recently Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and Muslim ethnic Amharas came under attack following incitements against them on Youtube and Facebook, Youtube took no action to remove such videos. But when a prominent Orthodox Church scholar preaches peace and urges the Ethiopian government to stop the persecution of Christians in Ethiopia, it is apparently not acceptable to Youtube.

Youtube holds Africans, and Orthodox Christians, in such contempt that it doesn’t even bother to point out the reason for terminating their channels from its platform.

Youtube finds this video that is full of profanity and racial epithets is acceptable and promotes to its users. The video has now over 600 million views: https://bit.ly/3pPX2PU

The videos by Zemedkun Bekele are wholesome, educational. No profanity. No nudity. No glorification of violence. They do not violate any of Youtube’s community guidelines. That is why Youtube canno give any reason for terminating his channel and Mereja TV’s channel. His videos promote unity among Ethiopia's various ethnic religious groups. They teach young people to take personal responsibility for their actions. Here is an example: https://bit.ly/3f7AbKF

Compare the two videos above. Which one violates Youtube’s terms?

It is obvious that for Youtube, a video that violates its community guidelines is fine as long as it generates millions of dollars. Videos that are in full compliance of Youtube’s guidelines, however, are not safe from termination because of personal biases of certain employees in Youtube, or complaints by a tyrannical government and its supporters.

If Youtube executives feel any sense of a good corporate citizenship, they would work with legitimate community-based media such as Mereja TV to clean up the filth on their platform. Youtube is full of pornographic and gruesome videos in Amharic (Ethiopia’s official language) and other languages that are harmful to children.

Youtube is accountable to the law. Discrimination based on religion, or national origin is prohibited under the United States laws. There is also the court of public opinion. We do not have the financial wherewithal to hire powerful lawyers to fight Youtube in court. But we can hit Youtube where it hurts the most, i.e., create enough awareness about its contempt towards African content creators and Orthodox Christians that advertisers will take notice. If Youtube ignores our public plea to reinstate our channels, the next step is to contact its advertisers and demand that they stop funding Youtube’s blatant discrimination.

Please join us and make our voice heard.

Mereja TV