Long time anti-auditing reaction channel the Welsh News Network (WNN) was removed by YouTube on Wednesday, with a message from YouTube indicating that “this account has been terminated because we received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement regarding material the user posted” appearing on direct links to its content.
The removal wasn’t a shock as WNN operator Daniel Jones posted the following message as a community post on Tuesday:
“This Channel is due to removed by youtube on the 23rd of July due to copyright strikes filed by Chille “ Delete Laws “ Decastro, I have filed counter claims but youtube keeps rejecting them. So it looks like this channel will be deleted on the 23rd.”
Jones’ claims were met with skepticism from fans and was posted right around the time that Jose “Chille” DeCastro made a vague statement that he would be pursuing legal action against other channels and his filing of a subpoena for information related to the Irish Demon YouTube channel.
No such subpoena has been filed for information related to Jones’ WNN channel as of Wednesday morning.
WNN had a controversial run, founded by Jones in 2022. Its programming eventually evolved into a six to eight hour long nightly panel show that primarily gave reactions to the works of auditors. As it was based out of Wales, WNN, through Jones, gave the impression that he had insurance that would protect him against any legal action taken against the channel and that it would be impossible to enforce American copyright law in Wales.
As WNN would replay entire videos belonging to DeCastro and others, it also established itself a destination where viewers could go where they could watch the works without “giving views” to the footage’s originating channels.
DeCastro had a long history of filing huge batches of copyright strikes against the channel, which somehow survived two brief demonetizations by YouTube and two brief suspensions from YouTube rumored to based on violations of its copyright policy in regard to DeCastro’s material.
WNN itself unofficially disbanded in May of 2024 after a falling out between the hosts and Jones following an exposé by YouTuber Irish Demon. That exposé, where Demon was assisted by members of WNN’s cast, saw Demon make the journey from Ireland to Wales and confirmed long-standing rumors that Jones had lied about his palatial home address, his criminal background, his romantic entanglements, his stature in the community and his supposed enormous wealth.
Members of his panel quickly regrouped without Jones and formed the ReallyCoolNews YouTube channel. WNN discontinued its nightly broadcasts at the same time, and despite efforts to revive the channel with promises of a return with a new cast and a new attempt at a nightly panel show, no such revival ever materialized.
WNN’s last attempt at relevance saw the channel participate in a simulcast of another channel’s coverage of the second Karen Read murder trial. Jones provided no original coverage, other than stopping by occasionally to do panel appearances on the originating channel, and WNN’s audience largely consisted of an occasional former viewer of the old channel attempting to troll Jones before being quickly banned from side chat.
Jones’ announcement was not without controversy, as former fans and cast members questioned the timing of the announcement. Some speculated that Jones may have staged the announcement as a quick way to end the channel, which was no longer putting out new content.
That speculation proved false as YouTube itself apparently carried through the threat to remove the channel Wednesday morning, with those who had open links to channel content receiving the message that the account had been terminated due to copyright infringement when they refreshed those links.
Members of Jones’ former cast mates, without Jones’ presence, had a brief celebratory livestream Tuesday night along with former fans of the channel.
It is unclear if Jones will fight YouTube’s decision to terminate his channel, nor unclear of Jose DeCastro will pursue legal action against Jones as of press time.
Full disclosure: ReallyCoolSite.org worked in conjunction with the Welsh News Network from March of 2023 until May of 2024. Owner/Operator Jim Finch served as a panel member on WNN broadcasts during that time. That connection was severed in May of 2024 due to the events outlined in this news report. ReallyCoolSite.org and its YouTube channel, ReallyCoolNews, had no connection with Jones at the time of his channel removal.
