YouTube drops Tenet Media, contributor says channel linked to Russian money 'has ended'

Evan Mealins, Nashville Tennessean

A contributor says operations have stopped at Tenet Media, the conservative content creation company based in Nashville with links to an alleged influence campaign by a Russian state-run media outlet.

In a Thursday evening social media post looking for new work, Tayler Hansen, whom Tenet Media identifies as a "field reporter" for the content creation company, wrote "TENET Media has ended after the DOJ indictment."

YouTube has also taken down Tenet Media's channel as well as four other channels "operated by its owner Lauren Chen," according to a statement from a YouTube spokesperson.

“Following an indictment from the US Department of Justice and after careful review, we are terminating the Tenet Media channel and four channels operated by its owner Lauren Chen as part of our ongoing efforts to combat coordinated influence operations," the statement reads.

Tenet has not posted on other social media sites since Wednesday. Those sites have largely left Tenet's content untouched, Reuters reported Friday morning.

Semafor reported that BlazeTV, the conservative media company founded by Glenn Beck, terminated its contract with Chen, who previously worked as a contributor. BlazeTV has not responded to requests from The Tennessean seeking confirmation.

Chen, who formerly posted to YouTube under the name Roaming Millennial, and Liam Donovan, who identifies himself on social media as the president of Tenet Media, have not publicly commented on Tenet Media's situation.

An indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses two Russian nationals employed by the Kremlin-backed media outlet Russia Today of funneling nearly $10 million through various shell companies to a Tennessee-based company in exchange for publishing content in line with the goals of the Russian government. Numerous descriptions of the unnamed company in the indictment match those of Tenet Media, which contracted with prominent conservative media figures like Tim Pool, Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin and others. Most of the Russian money the company received went directly to the production teams of the commentators it contracted with, the indictment states.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland listens as ATF Director Steven M. Dettelbach speaks following a briefing on the progress of the one year anniversary of the launch of the Department's regional firearms trafficking strike forces to address violent crime, at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, U.S., July 20, 2022. Oliver Contreras/Pool via REUTERS

Chen has worked for Russia Today in the past. Between March 2021 and February 2022, she authored 25 opinion pieces for Russia Today, which are still published on the media outlet's website.

Several former Tenet Media commentators have described themselves as "victims" in the alleged scheme and said they were unaware of any Russian influence or funding at the media company. The commentators insisted they had editorial control over their content. The indictment states that the company's founders disguised the company's true source of funding — state-run media outlet Russia Today — to commentators, claiming it came from Eduard Grigoriann, a fictitious investor.

Russia Today's editor-in-chief has boasted of creating an "entire empire of covert projects" to influence Western opinion since the media outlet was forced to cease formal operations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A senior U.S. intelligence official on Friday morning said Russia Today has built networks of Americans and others to sway U.S. voters toward Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election, Reuters reported.

Tenet Media's Nashville headquarters

A building that according to Tennessee state records houses the office of Tenet Media, a Nashville-based company that has posted nearly 2,000 videos on Youtube in less than a year, is seen in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sept. 5, 2024.
A building that according to Tennessee state records houses the office of Tenet Media, a Nashville-based company that has posted nearly 2,000 videos on Youtube in less than a year, is seen in Nashville, Tennessee, on Sept. 5, 2024.

Tenet Media was incorporated in Tennessee on Jan. 19, 2022, and launched in November 2023. It describes itself as "a network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues," the same description of the company the indictment states was financed by Russia Today.

Tenet Media's current address is a shared office space in Green Hills. According to an employee at the office's front desk, Tenet Media has a "virtual office" in the suite, meaning it receives its mail there but does not have its own physical meeting space.

Several other addresses in the Nashville area are associated with Tenet Media, Chen and Donovan. Its mailing address is the former site of an accounting firm on Old Hickory Boulevard that relocated to a different space in the same outlet. A partner at the firm did not confirm if Tenet Media was a client and said the company could not share any information regardless.

Tennessee Secretary of State business records state Tenet Media previously had its office in a shared office building on Confederate Drive in Franklin. Employees of Contractor Insurance Quote, a different company in the building that had been there for about two years, had not heard of Tenet Media.

Kirsten Fiscus contributed.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: YouTube drops Tenet Media, Nashville company linked to Russian money

Advertisement