YouTube Terminates Late Televangelist's Church Channel for 'Hate Speech'

YouTube has permanently shut down the channel of the late, disgraced televangelist TB Joshua, revealing it has been “terminated for violating… hate speech policies.”

The axing of The Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan) channel, which had 500k followers and tens of millions of views, comes weeks after dozens of women came forward to make on-the-record accusations against the late TB Joshua, citing widespread rape, abuse, and torture.

The driving force behind the termination seems to be the advocacy of Open Democracy, a left-wing, group who frequently targets right wing groups for “hate-speech” and “homophobia.” According to their report:

In 2021, openDemocracy’s reporting led to YouTube suspending SCOAN’s main channel for violating its user guidelines due to broadcasts of anti-LGBTIQ hate speech. As a result, the ministry lost the ability to broadcast to its 1.8 million subscribers.

But when Joshua died, his wife and successor, Evelyn Joshua, launched a new YouTube channel, and SCOAN’s media juggernaut continued. That is, until this week, when YouTube took down SCOAN’s channel, Emmanuel TV. It came after openDemocracy identified and reported the channel for publishing medical misinformation and hate speech against people with disabilities. We also reported more than 60 abusive videos about Joshua’s accusers, published on fan channels across different platforms, that were in violation of their terms of service. openDemocracy’s findings show these fan channels bullied and harassed Joshua’s accusers and discriminated against sexual minorities (some of Joshua’s accusers are queer).

Accoridng to reports, TB Joshua’s media department would frequently film some of the victimized women undergoing humiliating rituals and falsely confessing to sinful behavior and moral deviancy, shared by ministry fan paged and serving as “confessions” that were later used to silence and discredit them if they spoke out.

For more on TB Joshua:

In 2021, Nigeria’s most controversial pastor, the “prophet” T. B. Joshua, passed away at the age of 57. Joshua was best known for being the head of the Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN) that claimed 15,000 members, along with owning and operating Emmanuel TV. His net worth was estimated to be between 15-25 million dollars and was considered one of the richest pastors in the world.

A false prophet and heretic, he routinely made prophecies that did not come true, including saying that Flight MH370 would be soon be discovered, that the 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram would quickly be released, and that the 2014 Ebola scare and COVID-19 would end mere months after they begun.

He was known far and wide for his claims he had healed thousands from HIV, cancer, blindness, deafness, and had even raised people from the dead on a regular basis. A prosperity preacher huckster in its purest form, he pushed the usual tropes like miraculous healing water, miracle bead, and even “holy stickers” that would cure every ailment and physical malady under the sun. To bolster his image, he claimed he had a divine birth, spending 15 months in the womb.