FCC Chairman Takes Aim At YouTube TV In Digital Censorship Battle

YouTube TV is currently being questioned by the Federal Communications Chairman, Brendan Carr, over its “refusal” to carry Great American Media. Carr is inquiring to see if YouTube TV has a policy that “discriminates” against faith-based channels. The letter was sent to Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, and YouTube’s CEO, Neal Mohan.

In the letter, Carr cites the complaint from Great American Media, which claims that YouTube TV ‘refuses’ to carry one of its networks. Currently, the FCC has limited power over virtual multichannel video programming distributors like YouTube TV, however, the agency is considering whether it should expand its rules to include them.

Carr raises the issue that these allegations come at a time “when American public discourse has experienced an unprecedented surge in censorship. In too many cases, tech companies silenced individuals for doing nothing more than expressing themselves in the digital town square.”

The chairman is asking Pichai and Mohan to brief the FCC on its carriage negotiation process. The channel in the complaint, Great American Family, is already distributed across cable providers, as well as digital TV providers like Fubo, Sling, DIRECTV Stream and Hulu.

YouTube TV has responded to the FCC

A spokesperson for YouTube, Audrey Lopez said in a statement that YouTube TV “welcomes the opportunity to brief the FCC on YouTube TV subscription service and the strategic business decisions we make based on factors like user demand, operational cost and financial terms, and to reiterate that we do not have any policies that prohibit religious content.”

It’s important to note that Great American Media does have a pretty large presence across YouTube already. So it’s not so much that YouTube is censoring them, they are simply not carrying their channels (which are freely available on YouTube itself).

This isn’t the only trouble that YouTube is in right now, as Ohio Representative Jim Jordan has subpoenaed Google about whether YouTube removed content from its platform at the request of the Biden Administration. This isn’t surprising, as Republicans have long accused tech giants of trying to censor conservatives, particularly those who are far right.