YouTube Terminates Tenet Media Channels

(Reuters) – Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s YouTube announced on Thursday the termination of the Tenet Media channel and four channels operated by its owner, Lauren Chen. This decision follows an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Background

On Wednesday, the Justice Department filed money-laundering charges against two employees of Russian state media network RT. Officials described a scheme in which these employees hired an American company to produce online content aimed at influencing the 2024 presidential election.

Details of the Scheme

The Department stated these employees utilized shell companies and fake personas to pay $10 million to an unnamed Tennessee company for the production of online videos intended to amplify political divisions in the U.S.

While the indictment does not specify the company involved, the details align with Tenet Media, a Nashville-based entity that has uploaded nearly 2,000 videos to YouTube in less than a year.

Response from Tenet

Tenet did not provide a comment regarding the termination.