YouTube temporarily suspended President Trump’s account, citing concerns for potentially inciting violence.
The social media platform became the latest to suspend or ban the president on Tuesday night when it announced a minimum of a weeklong suspension. YouTube said it removed “new content” that had been uploaded to Trump’s channel that was “violating our policies,” citing “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence.”
“After careful review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to the Donald J. Trump channel and issued a strike for violating our policies for inciting violence,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “As a result, in accordance with our long-standing strikes system, the channel is now prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for a minimum of seven days — which may be extended.”
The platform, which said that a recent video from the president’s channel had incited violence, also decided on “indefinitely disabling” the comment section on the president’s channel due to “the ongoing concerns about violence.” The platform also issued the president’s channel its first strike, which results in a temporary suspension. Should the president’s channel, or any channel, receive three strikes in a 90-day period, it will be removed permanently.
Trump has been pushed off a handful of social media platforms after his supporters descended upon the Capitol to stop Congress’ certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, which resulted in a handful of deaths. The violent uprising has led a handful of platforms to crack down on incitements of violence, including calls of that nature from the president.
On Thursday, Facebook and Instagram banned the president throughout the remainder of his term. A day later, Twitter disabled the president’s personal account permanently after it issued a review of two of the president’s tweets that day, which the company determined violated its Glorification of Violence policy. Twitter determined that the two tweets could be viewed as an incitement of violence, encouraging his supporters to mobilize.
Twitter concluded that the president’s tweets “are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021.”
