Abdulsalam: Blocking Yemeni Channels, Failure of US-Saudi Military, Political Aggression

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Almasirah Media Network, Wednesday, said that the decision to arbitrarily block some Yemeni media channels proves the failure of military and political war against the Yemeni People.

Mohammad Abdulsalam pointed out that those who resort to such decisions are unable to win their military wars.

He explained that whoever commits heinous human crimes and besieges the Yemeni People and kills their children is the one who resorts to such barbaric and failed attempts.

He noted that the timing of blocking the channels does not indicate having good intentions towards peace, or to benefit from the truce in reducing escalation, as much as it proves that those are still moving with their aggression.

In July 17, YouTube, an American online video-sharing and social media platform, 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.

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.

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.