YouTube has decided to suspend incumbent United States (US) President Donald Trump’s account for at least a week after he uploaded a video on his channel that incited violence, the company announced on Tuesday.The video streaming website was the only major social media outlet that had yet to limit Trump’s activity. Earlier, Facebook suspended Trump’s account “indefinitely,” while Twitter banned Trump from its platform permanently following the violent breach of the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
“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. “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.”
YouTube has a “three strike” policy for suspending user accounts, whereby a channel earns one strike per any violation of the platform’s guidelines. On Tuesday, a video was uploaded on the Donald Trump’s channel that allegedly violated YouTube’s guidelines by inciting violence. The video was immediately removed from the platform, and YouTube has not yet disclosed its contents. YouTube also announced that it will soon be disabling comments under all videos on Trump’s channel.
