Soon-to-be replaced US President Donald Trump has been in the sights of social media platforms ever since his supporters stormed the Capitol during a rally that turned violent. The first to de-platform him was Twitter, followed by Facebook, and now YouTube is taking action too.
This as the company confirmed that his official channel has been hit with a strike, and now new content will be permitted from being uploaded to it over the next seven days minimum. The action follows a recent video that too was removed by YouTube in which Trump called the aforementioned supporters turned rioters “very special.”
1/ After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J. Trump’s channel for violating our policies. It now has its 1st strike & is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a *minimum* of 7 days.
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) January 13, 2021
“Given the ongoing concerns about violence, we will also be indefinitely disabling comments on President Trump’s channel, as we’ve done to other channels where there are safety concerns found in the comments section,” the platform further explained regarding its decision.
As Engadget reports, there are still some videos that have been uploaded from roughly 12 hours ago, but said strike should put an end to that for the next week at least. With the FBI reporting that Trump supporters are planning armed protests at all 50 State Capitols between 16th and 20th January, this ban comes at a time when tensions are at their highest in the country.
It therefore remains to be seen whether the transfer of power from the Trump administration to the Biden one later this month will be peaceful.
It is also unclear how the president’s supporters, many of whom use YouTube to create and spread misinformation, will react to the banning of his channel.
[Image – CC BY-SA 2.0 Gage Skidmore]