Scientology advertising on YouTube but still has a banned account

Much of the Anonymous versus Scientology epic has played out on YouTube. As we know, it all started when the church yanked the infamous Tom Cruise video, then continued when Anonymous posted its own video, threatening and denouncing the church. Still later, videos of global anti-Scientology protests flooded YouTube, and then, to lash back at the backlash, the church created its own anti-Anonymous channel, which has since been suspended (Glosslip's take here).

So it's particularly odd to now see giant Scientology advertisements on high-profile YouTube pages, such as this right-rail mega-ad pictured on the Most Viewed of all time page:

The suspension of the earlier account brings up its own set of questions. The "AnonymousFacts" channel, besides posting questionably accurate videos that sought to portray the peaceable group as a network of cyber-terrorists, also posted clips unmasking particular Anonymous members by publicizing their private information, a move that YouTube apparently didn't like, hence the yank. Still, the church now has a second YouTube "Sponsor" channel. YouTube has no specific descriptive information about what constitutes a Sponsor account, but if "sponsor" still means what I think it means, along with its ad buys, the church is paying for a nice, flashy page of its own.

The inconsistency: As YouTube's account policy clearly states: "When a user has posting privileges temporarily disabled on one account, for the duration of the suspension that user is also prohibited from posting material to YouTube using any other account."

Terms of use are not legally binding, of course, and YouTube can do whatever it wants on its own site.  But even if there's the appearance that they're giving Scientology a pass on a violation, and if that pass has anything to do with a newly formed financial relationship between the church and the 'Tube, there are going to be a lot of masked geeks with a lot of things to say about it.

I contacted YouTube for a comment, and they promised to get back later today, so stay tuned for an update.