At around 7:30 am on Tuesday, November 3, YouTube terminated the ABS-CBN News and ANC channels over some yet unspecified violations of the video sharing site’s terms of service.

By afternoon, they had been restored even as the Philippine Star’s Janvic Mateo reported confirmation from YouTube that the “the ABS-CBN channels in question were hacked on Nov. 2.”

It seems clear that the channels’ termination was triggered by an act of sabotage by a party or parties determined to make sure the country’s largest network, whose free TV and radio operations were shut down by government following repeated threats from a vindictive president, is taken down as well from other platforms.

Could it be mere coincidence that this happened right after government was again criticized by various quarters over how the absence of ABS-CBN, whose broad reach made it the only network accessible in some areas of the country, might have impacted on people’s awareness of super typhoon Rolly as it barreled towards the country?

Will this be the last of such attempts to totally silence ABS-CBN? We certainly hope so.

But even if not, we are certain any attempts to muzzle the network will fail or, at worst, not last for long. Because, in the end, the truth will come out.

National Directorate
+69175155991