NTV's YouTube account, which had over 2.1 million subscribers, was terminated by the video-sharing platform on Monday, February 13.
An attempt to access the NTV Kenya channel returned a blank page and a red strip indicating that the account was no longer accessible.
"This account has been terminated for violating YouTube's Community Services," the red strip read.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Social Media Guru Brian Muuo explained that the termination of a channel comes after the owner violates the policy three times.
"When a channel violates the guidelines three times within 90 days, then they are liable for termination. This means that the account is deleted from the platform.
"However, NTV can still appeal to have the suspension reviewed depending on the reason their account got terminated," Muuo explained.
Punishment for strikes includes a ban from uploading stories, live streams, or stories, starting a scheduled live stream, creating custom thumbnails, add or removing playlists from the watch page using the 'save; button among others.
The ban lasts for one and two weeks for the first and second strikes respectively. The media outlet received an e-mail from the platform indicating which guidelines they violated.
The media house had shared more than 100,000 videos on the channel including cut-outs from news bulletins, and live events before the channel was terminated.
YouTube introduced guidelines to better user experience on the platform. Community guidelines touch on spam and deceptive practices; impersonation, external links, fake engagement, and playlist policies.
Other guidelines touch on sensitive content, violent or dangerous content, regulated goods sold on YouTube, and misinformation.
Notably, this is the second time the media outlet's account YouTube page was pulled down. In 2016, their account was terminated for violating community guidelines.
