News – Yemen: The Ministry of Culture renewed on Wednesday its condemnation of YouTube's decision to close and delete the national Yemeni media channels.

The ministry denounced, in a statement, "the aggressive actions of YouTube, through its suspension of a number of national cultural channels and websites in the Yemeni capital Sana'a."

"These actions are carried out with determination to reveal the mask of hostility that YouTube wears towards all Islamic peoples in general, including the Yemeni People in particular," the statement said. 

 The statement stated that YouTube confirms that it is performing its cheap role in implementing the agendas of the hostile conspiratorial forces represented by the US and Zionist arrogance without any scruples of morals.

The statement also stressed that all the cultural institutions in Yemen perform their responsible role to protect the homeland and the people from falling prey in the hands of mercenaries.

The Ministry of Culture renewed the call for YouTube to retract its mistakes and review its position, based on respect for the rights of the Yemeni People.

YouTube, an American online video-sharing and social media platform, blocked access to Al-Furqan Network and the Fikra Foundation on Tuesday, days after closing 18 national media channels without any logical justification.

YouTube justified this arbitrary step by saying that it was due to its "private policies".

YouTube also closed the third channel of Al-Masirah office in Dhamar Governorate, hours after closing the channels of the Fikra Foundation and Al-Furqan Network.

This is not the first time that YouTube and other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have deleted Yemeni accounts or pages without any prior notice or justification.

In July 17, YouTube arbitrarily blocked access to more than a dozen Yemeni channels without giving any prior notice.

The attack targeted 18 channels of the media bureau of Yemen’s Operations Command Center as well as Ansarullah's art and documentary production unit.

The latest move constitutes a violation of freedom of speech and expression since many of the deleted channels actually used to post content related to arts and music, and had nothing to do with the promotion of hatred or incitement to violence.

In June 2021, the US Justice Department seized the website domain of the Yemeni Arabic-language al-Masirah television channel along with nearly three dozen other regional websites.

The move comes amid an 8-year Saudi-led war and economic blockade against Yemen, which has turned the country into what the UN calls the "worst humanitarian crisis" on earth.