YouTube suspends account of pro-family group, reinstates channel after Republican backlash

YouTube has reinstated the page of the American Principles Project – a conservative family group based in Washington, D.C.

The group was briefly suspended by the Big Tech platform Monday reportedly for sharing a video that featured former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Bannon's podcast was banned on the platform without explanation in January.

Terry Schilling, the group's president,  thinks the temporary ban was because of a video American Principles Project shared in July promoting its "Big Family" project, which promotes traditional American family values. 

"Hey looks like @Google shutdown @approject’s @YouTube page over this video. Pretty obnoxious [to be honest]. No warning, no explanation, nothing. These people are evil," Schilling tweeted.

Though the group's page was reinstated just a short while after being disappeared without reason, the incident drew the attention of Republican leaders in Washington.

"Google is abusing its monopolistic marker share to ban a mainstream pro-family group from posting videos," Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton wrote. "Just one more reason why Congress needs to – and will – pass legislation cracking down on monopolies like Google." 

The major media platform, which is owned by Google, has banned or suspended a number of prominent Republican thinkers and leaders this year. Late this summer, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's account was suspended, which was followed by the banning last month of the channel belonging to his  father, former Rep. Ron Paul. 

YouTube defended its decision to suspend the American Principles Project.

"We enforce our Terms of Service equally for everyone, and terminated the American Principles Project (APP) channel for re-uploading content from a previously terminated channel," the company said in a statement. "Upon review of their appeal, we have reinstated the APP channel and issued a warning to the channel, in accordance with our three-strikes system. We’re working with APP to explain our policies so they can make the best decisions for their channel moving forward."