YouTube shuts down TB Joshua’s Emmanuel TV channel after BBC documentary

Emmanuel TV, the channel of Prophet TB Joshua, the late founder of Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), has been taken down by YouTube yet again.

This comes weeks after the BBC and openDemocracy released a documentary featuring some of the cleric’s former disciples who accused him of rape, forced abortion, manufactured miracles, and torture.

A disciple of Joshua named Wiseman Harry, who runs SCOAN in Thessalonica, Greece, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday: “The YouTube channel of the late Prophet T.B. Joshua and the SCOAN Nigeria has been once again removed from the YouTube platform, following the reporting of open Democracy media company. The aforementioned organisation claimed to have detected more than 50 videos on affiliated channels of Emmanuel TV, which expose the supposed victims that accused Prophet T.B. Joshua, yet they refused to specify those clips and how they violated the YouTube policies.”

However, in a comment to the BBC, the Google-owned video-sharing platform said Emmanuel TV had been “terminated for violating… hate speech policies.”

As part of the investigation with the BBC, openDemocracy said it analysed Emmanuel TV’s online presence, finding at least 50 allegedly abusive videos on YouTube.

The content the organisation reported included Emmanuel TV footage of people with mental health issues being kept in chains, cases of medical misinformation and examples of smear campaigns against women who spoke out about Joshua’s alleged sexual abuse.

The account was suspended on January 29 after openDemocracy reported the videos to YouTube.

This is the second time in three years that its YouTube channel has been suspended, following previous breaches of the platform’s community guidelines.