El Pitazo. The crossroads of reporting in social media

On March 24, 2021 YouTube closed the channel of El Pitazo, a Venezuelan independent media outlet. The decision was taken after imposing three strikes to the channel, which at the time had just over 100,000 subscribers. The first sanction was motivated by a news item in which President Nicolás Maduro presented a cure for covid-19, but YouTube took the note as a violation of its policies on disinformation regarding the pandemic.

The second video covered a terrorist attack in Baghdad, sanctioned by the platform for violating its rules on violent or graphic content. The third, published in November 2019, showed a teacher beating pupils with a strap. Despite the fact that the faces of the minors were hidden, YouTube considered that it violated its guidelines on child safety.

The strikes that preceded the closure of the channel were appealed at the time, but the platform did not change its mind. In order to recover the channel, a strong visibility campaign was necessary. While waiting for the review of the permanent closure, El Pitazo contacted other media outlets to spread the news, sought to communicate directly with a YouTube manager and promoted tags on social media. Organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and various independent media joined the wave of solidarity.

A week after the channel was shut down, YouTube reversed its decision and gave the administrators back access to their account.