YouTube suspends Trump’s account for at least one week

YouTube said on Tuesday evening that it was preventing President Donald Trump from uploading new videos for a week, joining a chorus of social media companies over the president’s presence on his platform in the wake of the deadly riots in the Capitol last week Curb

A YouTube spokesman said in a statement, “After careful review, and ongoing concerns for violence, we removed new content uploaded to the Donald J. Trump Channel and for violating our policies Strike released. ” “As a result, according to our long-standing strike system, the channel is now prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for at least seven days – which can be extended.”

YouTube said it would “deactivate comments on the president’s channel indefinitely, citing ongoing concerns about violence.” YouTube parent company Google states on a support page that “content that encourages others to commit violent acts is not allowed on YouTube.” It’s unclear which video on Trump’s channel punishes.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Crowds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol during a vote to confirm the election victory of President Joe Biden, with social media companies trying to avoid repeating the violence that took place in the past. Twitter has banned Trump permanently, while Facebook has indefinitely blocked the president’s account. Prior to the suspension on Tuesday, YouTube was the last major platform not to ban the president.

While Facebook and Twitter were quick to take action against Trump in the wake of the attack, YouTube took a tamer approach. Instead of addressing Trump specifically, the company said it would issue a strike on any account that posted videos making false claims about election fraud. Under YouTube’s rules, three strikes within a 90-day period result in the platform being permanently kicked. The first strike comes with a one-week ban from posting content. The second strike came with a two-week ban.

YouTube first announced a policy update last month against claims of electoral fraud, but allowed a grace period before criminals could be punished by the strike. The grace period was scheduled to end on Inauguration Day on 20 January but was elevated after the Capital Riot.

Employees of Google and its parent company Alphabet have demanded the company boot Trump permanently from the platform. In one Open letter last week, Alphabet’s staff union, said YouTube’s response to the Capital Riot was “lacking” and urged YouTube officials to take stern action.

“We know that social media has led to a growing fascist movement in the United States and we are particularly cognizant that YouTube, an alphabet product, has played an important role in this growing threat, which There has been insufficient response by YouTube officials. ” The union said

Beyond banning Trump, Silicon Valley companies have clamped down on others who incite violence and spread misinformation. Last week the company permanently Took down the channel Following Steve Bannon’s popular War Room podcast, it violated the platform’s 3-strike policy. Twitter has Over 70,000 accounts were purged QAnon is dedicated to the conspiracy theory, which argues the government unabashedly that it is being run by a cobble of devil-worshiping sex traffickers.

Tech giants have taken action against Parlar, a social network popular with far-right and extremist users who helped plan the riot attack. Google and Apple suspended the platform from their App Store and Amazon stopped hosting the app from web services, which leases server space to other companies. In response, Parler accused Amazon of breach of contract.