YouTube Pulls Down Dr Damages Show On Tinubu’s Guinea Passport

YouTube, a social media video streaming platform, has removed an episode of Dr Damages Show in which David Hundeyin discussed President-elect Bola Tinubu’s Guinean diplomatic passport.

iexclusivenews reports that Rudolf Okonkwo, a Post-Colonial African History teacher at New York City’s School of Visual Arts, hosts the Dr Damages Show.

A screenshot of YouTube’s message informing the show host that the episode has been taken down was seen by Peoples Gazette.

It reads: “Hi Dr. Damages, We wanted to let you know our team reviewed your content, and we think it violates our policy on personally identifiable information. We know you may not have realised this was a violation of our policies, so we’re not applying a strike to your channel. However, we have removed the following content from YouTube:

Video: David Hundeyin on Bola Tinubu’s scandals & the future of investigative journalism in Nigeria.”

Mr Hundeyin, an independent journalist, published a data page from a Guinean diplomatic passport containing Mr Tinubu’s name and photograph last Saturday. Mr Hundeyin’s Twitter account was later blocked by the microblogging site due to a violation of its rules.

David Hundeyin appeared on Dr Damages Show on Sunday, speaking about the president-elect’s dual citizenship, as a follow-up to the expose that saw Mr Tinubu trend over the weekend.

Bola Tinubu’s Guinean diplomatic passport scandal is the latest in a string of scandals involving the 71-year-old politician.

The president-elect’s diplomatic passport saga runs counter to his declaration under oath on the EC-9 form he submitted to the electoral body INEC when he applied for office.

Dr Damages stated that this was not the first time one of his shows had been removed. However, after blurring out details on Mr Tinubu’s Guinean passport data page, he re-uploaded the show.

“This wasn’t the first time YouTube had done this. I have had videos about Apostle Suleman removed,” Dr Damages said.

Dr Damages expressed concern about censorship by powerful and influential people who are frequently supported by YouTube, saying, “Here is my concern for today.”

Pastors, politicians, and business owners with questionable reputations have complained about my channel using their images or making fair use of their sermons or videos.

YouTube usually sided with them and removed the videos.

“It is becoming troubling that politically exposed people feel they can bully content producers and silence them. Some of them use lawyers to intimidate content producers. The rate of this rampant disruption may have a chilling effect on content producers, some of whom have started to self-censor. These trends make it more challenging to hold people in leadership positions accountable. And we shall all be losers if nothing is done to reverse it,” he added.