YouTube has deactivated two channels associated with the Oath Keepers group after its leader and 10 other members were arrested on seditious conspiracy charges in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.
YouTube told Axios, which first reported the story, that the group broke its creator responsibility guidelines.
The two channels affected were one named "Oath Keepers" which had fewer than 45,000 subscribers, and the one maintained by the group's founder and national leader Stewart Rhodes, which had fewer than 20 subscribers.
According to YouTube spokesperson Ivy Choi, its guidelines state that if "significant evidence is presented in a court of law against a creator for a very egregious crime, we may terminate their channel if its YouTube comment is closely related to the crime."
"This termination follows evidence presented in federal indictments against the Oath Keepers and the charges against them and their role in the January 6 attacks," Choi told Axios.
Prosecutors alleged in a court filing on Wednesday that a group of Oath Keepers stockpiled an arsenal of rifles and ammunition in a hotel outside Washington, D.C., as part of a plan to stop the electoral vote count on Jan. 6, 2021.
Oath Keepers will no longer be able to use, own or create other YouTube channels, Choi told Axios, and YouTube will remove any content or delete new channels that re-upload content from the deleted accounts.
Rhodes never entered the Capitol building on Jan. 6, but is accused of helping set the violence into motion.
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