YouTube suspends Trump’s channel and deletes recent video

Donald Trump’s channel is still visible on Youtube but a video was removed

YouTube said it will review its decision  within a week (Reuters)

YouTube has frozen Donald Trump’s channel on the platform, suspending it for at least a week from uploading new videos and deleting a recent video following ongoing concern of “potential for violence”.

Google-owned YouTube joined its fellow social media giants Twitter and Facebook in their crackdown on the US president over the fear of rerun of the US Capitol mayhem on 6 January.  

"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," YouTube 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 also disabled comments from the videos on Mr Trump’s channel, which has 2.77 million followers.

The outgoing US president was once highly active on social media, using it as his preferred medium to reach his mammoth online following, but is now facing a blanket ban across major platforms.  

On Tuesday, Mr Trump criticised the social media giants that are banning him and said they are making a “catastrophic mistake” and it is a “horrible thing for our country and [done] to our country". He also defended his rally speech that has been accused of inciting the mob to break into the US Capitol, calling the remarks “totally appropriate”.

While Facebook suspended Mr Trump’s account indefinitely, Twitter has put a permanent ban on the president. YouTube was the last to censor Mr Trump. Intensifying the crackdown on Mr Trump’s supporters,  Apple, Google and Amazon blacklisted Parler, a social media site popular with conservatives.

According to streaming platform YouTube’s policies, it issues “strikes” on videos for violating its terms of use. The first strike amounts to suspension of adding new videos for seven days, second within 90 days leads to two weeks suspension and third leads to a full ban.  

The president’s posts since the election have been under increased scrutiny on Twitter, with the platform labelling his posts as “disputed" or potentially "misleading”, often alongside fact-checking posts.  

His eldest son Donald Trump Jr urged Elon Musk on Tuesday to start a Twitter rival where his father is not banned and “save free speech in America”.