OAKLAND, Calif. – YouTube said Tuesday it had suspended President Trump’s channel over concerns about “continuing potential for violence”, the latest move by one of the major tech companies to curb the president online.
In a tweet On the official account of YouTube, the video site owned by Google said that Trump’s account was suspended after one of his recent videos violated the policy of banning content that disseminates misinformation and claiming to be major election fraud. YouTube said it would not be able to upload new content to its channel, which has about 2.8 million subscribers, for at least seven days. YouTube also said it was eliminating comments on its video indefinitely.
It was not immediately clear which video caused the suspension of his account.
Many tech companies have pulled out to curb Trump online since a violent crowd of his supporters, spurred on by the president, stormed the Capitol last week. In the aftermath, Facebook suspended the president from his social network as well as Instagram at least until the end of his term. Twitter followed by permanently banning Trump’s account on his service and depriving him of his favorite social media platform, where he had 88 million followers. Other sites, such as Snapchat, Reddit and Twitch, have Mr. Trump also shortened.
The actions were praised by liberals and others, who said that the actions were long overdue because Mr. Trump has used social media to spread falsehoods and incite violence. But critics say the wholesale cut raises questions about how much power technology companies have over online conversations.
The big tech companies also got support from other sites that offered right-wing content. Parler, a social networking site that became popular with Trump supporters for its loose approach to free speech, went dark Monday after Amazon pulled out of its computer services. Apple and Google had earlier removed Parler from their app stores. Parler said he is looking for a way to get online again.
This is an evolving story and will be updated.