YouTube suspends payments to Brazilian accounts over election disinformation

YouTube app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - YouTube said on Thursday it had suspended payments to content producers from 14 channels accused of spreading fake news about next year's election by the country's federal electoral court, the TSE.

Most of the channels offer regular full-throated support to President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who has been sowing doubts about the credibility of next year's vote. The president is down in the polls after overseeing the world's second deadliest coronavirus outbreak and a weak economy.