YouTube has suspended popular Christian television channel, Emmanuel TV, owned by Pastor TB Joshua of The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations.

Announcing the news in a statement posted on its official Twitter handle, the cleric said the channel was suspended over a video said to contain hate speech.

“Our mission is to share the love of God with everyone – irrespective of race or religion – and we strongly oppose all forms of hate speech! We have had a long and fruitful relationship with YouTube and believe this decision was made in haste.”

They also published the video that led to the channel’s suspension on their Facebook page.

The video titled ‘THE SPIRIT OF MAN IS TORMENTING YOU!!!’ | TB Joshua Personal Prophecy” was about Chetanna Nwabuwa a Nigerian living in Ghana who the church claimed was allegedly possessed by a strange spirit.

As of press time, the video has already been pulled down from Facebook.

The channel, which had over 1.8 million subscribers and 600 million views before the suspension, was reportedly the most-watched Nigerian Christian ministry on YouTube.

Mr Joshua also urged Nigerians to raise their concerns over his channel’s suspension on other social media platforms. He made the plea on his verified Facebook page. 

In the video clip, the pastor prophesied that a man was possessed by a strange spirit and requested that he should come out.

Like TB Joshua, Chris Oyakhilome’s religious TV channel, Loveworld, was recently sanctioned by The Office of Communications in the United Kingdom (Ofcom) but this time around, for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19.

Ofcom, in a statement on its official Twitter page, said the station was fined £125,000 (N65.6m) for breaching the country’s broadcasting code by disseminating misinformation on COVID-19