Following actions by other social media companies against President Trump, YouTube announced Tuesday it was temporarily suspending his account.
The action applied to new content, with previous videos on the channel still available.
“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,” the YouTubeInsider account said.
“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 statement continued.
2/ 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. https://t.co/1aBENHGU5z
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) January 13, 2021
Last week, following the riot at the U.S. Capitol Building that left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer, YouTube said “*any* channels posting new videos with false claims in violation of our policies will now receive a strike.”
(2/4) Over the last month, we’ve removed thousands of videos which spread misinformation claiming widespread voter fraud changed the result of the 2020 election, including several videos President Trump posted to his channel.
— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) January 7, 2021
(4/4) Channels that receive a strike are temporarily suspended from posting or live streaming. Channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period will be permanently removed from YouTube. We apply our policies and penalties consistently, regardless of who uploads it.
— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) January 7, 2021
YouTube did not say which video had violated their policies. Axios reports that "several videos were uploaded to President Trump's YouTube account [Tuesday], most from his visit to Texas, addressing issues ranging from the border wall to law enforcement to the events of last week."