YouTube has suspended the account of influential Nigerian TV evangelist TB Joshua over allegations of hate speech.
A rights body filed a complaint after reviewing at least seven videos showing the preacher conducting prayers to "cure" gay people.
Facebook has also removed at least one of the offending posts showing a woman being slapped while TB Joshua says he is casting out a "demonic spirit".
The preacher said he was appealing against YouTube's decision.
His YouTube account had 1.8 million subscribers.
TB Joshua is one of Africa's most influential evangelists, with top politicians among his followers.
Why was the account closed?
UK-based openDemocracy filed a complaint after reviewing seven videos posted on TB Joshua Ministries' YouTube channel between 2016 and 2020, which show the preacher conducting prayers to "cure" gay people.
A YouTube spokesperson told openDemocracy that the channel had been closed because its policy "prohibits content which alleges that someone is mentally ill, diseased, or inferior because of their membership in a protected group including sexual orientation".
A post on TB Joshua Ministries Facebook account said: "We have had a long and fruitful relationship with YouTube and believe this decision was made in haste."
What does the offending video show?
The video is an update of a prayer session of a woman called Okoye, first broadcast in 2018.
In it TB Joshua slaps and pushes Okoye and an unnamed woman at least 16 times and tells Okoye: "There is a spirit disturbing you. She has transplanted herself into you. It is the spirit of woman," openDemocracy reports.
The video which was viewed more than 1.5 million before the YouTube channel was taken down, later shows her testifying before the congregation that "the spirit of woman" had been destroying her life but she had been healed after the preacher's prayers.
She declares that she had stopped having "affection" to women and "now I have affections for men".
Latest Stories
-
Asante artefacts return: Reawakening of Asante’s Soul
3 mins -
ECG attributes May 1 dumsor to rainstorm
16 mins -
Armed robbers attack Mobile Money agent in broad daylight at Tumu
16 mins -
Ghana to compete for 2024 Olympics ticket in Bahamas World Athletics Relays
20 mins -
COCOBOD workers bemoan effect of illegal mining on cocoa sector
24 mins -
We are unhappy with recent results – Hearts of Oak assistant coach Abdul Bashir
26 mins -
Why I said Wizkid disrespected Don Jazzy – Macaroni explains
32 mins -
You are making people angry with your utterances – Kwesi Pratt tells Akufo-Addo
39 mins -
Age is just a number: How 60-year-old Argentine emerged Miss Universe Buenos Aires
45 mins -
GNPC new boss Joseph Abuabu Dadzie starts work today
2 hours -
Appiatse disaster: Akufo-Addo to inaugurate 120 housing units
2 hours -
DJ Vyrusky out with new song ‘Follow Who Know Road’
2 hours -
Today’s front pages: Thursday, May 2, 2024
2 hours -
Government steps up efforts to pass new Labour Law
2 hours -
Seven ECG substations in Accra flooded over Wednesday’s downpour
2 hours