In a capital city bursting with nonprofits, think tanks and causes, Justice Connection hasn’t reached household resonance just yet, despite a profile in the New York Times. It’s a nonprofit with a purpose specific to this particular time: supporting Justice Department employees subject to the demands and excesses of the new Trump administration.

To get the word out about its work, Justice Connection, which is staffed by former Justice Department employees, developed a 30-second ad that it placed on “Fox & Friends” on March 26 and uploaded to its YouTube page. Days later, YouTube, which is owned by Google, informed Justice Connection of the following action: “We reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our misinformation policy,” said the March 31 note. “Because of this, we have removed your channel from YouTube.”

On Tuesday night, I requested comment from YouTube on the matter.

By Wednesday afternoon, Justice Connection learned that YouTube had reversed the ban. “We’re pleased to let you know that we’ve recently reviewed your YouTube account, and after taking another look, we can confirm that it is not in violation of our Terms of Service. We have lifted the suspension of your account, and it is once again active and operational,” reads a note from the “YouTube team.”

So we’re all good here? Not at all: The ad was the only video that Justice Connection had uploaded to its YouTube page. Dubbed “Patriots,” the spot includes a snippet from President Donald Trump’s March 14 speech at the Justice Department, a reference to a March 8 Washington Post article on the purge of national security officials from the department, a reference to a Feb. 5 Wall Street Journal article about the FBI spiraling into chaos under Trump and a brief remark by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

It closes with these words: “Firing these patriots won’t keep our country safe. President Trump, stop putting American lives at risk. Support our nation’s law enforcement.”

YouTube’s misinformation policy disallows manipulated content that “may pose a serious risk of egregious harm,” misattributed content claiming that “old footage from a past event is from a current event” and material that could suppress participation in the census.

The YouTube compliance page lists examples of violations, including “inaccurately translated video subtitles that inflame geopolitical tensions creating serious risk of egregious harm.”

There’s no inaccurate translation or transcription or abridgment in the “Patriots” ad. It merely stitches together news stories and public statements. I posed several questions to YouTube about the matter and received this response: “We looked into this and can confirm that the channel was mistakenly terminated and it has been reinstated,” responded Audrey Lopez, a spokeswoman for YouTube. “Sometimes our systems make mistakes, which is why we give YouTube creators the option to appeal our decisions.”

That all sounds procedurally glorious, until you consider that Justice Connection availed itself of its appeal option. YouTube rejected it, saying: “We reviewed your channel carefully, and have confirmed that it violates our misinformation policy. We know this is probably disappointing news, but it’s our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all.” It concluded by noting, “We won’t be putting your channel back up on YouTube.”

In a statement on the ordeal, Justice Connection’s founder and executive director, Stacey Young, said: “We stand by every word of our ad, which ran on Fox & Friends and viscerally highlighted how President Trump’s attacks on federal law enforcement are making our communities more vulnerable to crime and terrorism.

Google’s decision to call our ad ‘misinformation,’ remove our YouTube channel and deny our appeal without any explanation should alarm anyone who wants to speak out about the administration.”

Asked about the appeal, a YouTube spokesperson responded that the platform uses “a number of signals to validate new channels. This new channel showed a signal that tripped our systems around deceptive identity, which we consider a form of misinformation.” The substance of the Justice Connection ad, noted the spokesperson, had “no bearing on the channel termination.”

Big Tech these days is under scrutiny for various acts of coziness with the Trump administration. Google contributed $1 million to the Trump inaugural fund and aligned its influential maps service with Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

There’s no evidence that YouTube’s actions against Justice Connection are linked to these undercurrents. The whole thing could stem from the mistake-prone “systems” cited in Lopez’s statement. Which brings to mind the question: Which scenario is more frightening?

Erik Wemple, The Washington Post’s media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry.