YouTube suspends Trump’s channel for at least a week

YouTube has suspended President Trump’s channel for at least a week amid concerns over “ongoing potential for violence,” making it the latest platform to limit the president’s online activities.

The Google-owned platform said it removed content from Trump’s channel, uploaded Tuesday, that violated company policies on the incitement of violence. It was not immediately clear which videos it had determined were in violation.

“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 an emailed statement.

Under the suspension, Trump’s channel is temporarily prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for at least seven days, although the channel remains live, YouTube said.

The move to curtail Trump’s social media activity comes after a mob of his supporters, urged on by his rhetoric, stormed the Capitol last week to try to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

YouTube said that the channel had incurred its “1st strike” and that comments would be indefinitely disabled on the channel. Under YouTube’s policies, a second strike results in a two-week suspension, and a third strike results in a permanent ban.

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Tech companies have moved to suspend Trump’s online postings, with Facebook and Instagram suspending Trump at least until the end of his term and Twitter suspending his account indefinitely. Other sites, including Reddit and Snapchat, have also banned Trump. Online shopping platform Shopify has pulled Trump stores off its platform.

Companies such as Apple and Google have also moved to ban Parler, a social networking site popular among Trump supporters, from their app stores. Parler’s site went offline this week after Amazon ceased to provide hosting services to the company.

“A minimum of seven days is an important and necessary first step by YouTube, and we hope they will make it permanent,” said Jim Styer, chief executive of the media rating firm Common Sense Media.

“While it is disappointing that it took a Trump-incited attack on our Capitol to get here, it appears that all the major platforms are finally beginning to step up and take this important issue seriously and that policymakers and the public are committed to holding them accountable,” he said.