OAKLAND, Calif. – YouTube said on Tuesday it had suspended President Trump’s channel due to concern about the “continued potential for violence,” the latest move by one of the big tech companies to limit the online president.
On a tweet in the official YouTube account, the Google video site said it suspended Trump’s account after one of his recent videos violated his policy of banning content that spreads disinformation alleging widespread electoral fraud. YouTube said it would not be able to upload new content to its channel, which had about 2.8 million subscribers, for at least seven days. YouTube also said it was disabling comments on its video indefinitely.
It was not immediately which video triggered the suspension of his account.
Many tech companies have acted to restrict Trump online since a violent crowd of his supporters, instigated by the president, invaded the Capitol last week. As a result, Facebook suspended the president of its central social network, as well as Instagram, at least until the end of its term. Twitter permanently blocked Trump’s account on his service, depriving him of his favorite social media platform, where he had 88 million followers. Other sites, like Snapchat, Reddit and Twitch, have also restricted Trump.
The actions received praise from liberals and others, who said the actions should already be taken because Trump used social media to spread falsehoods and incite violence. But critics said the wholesale crackdown raises questions about how much power tech companies have over online speech.
The big tech companies also got support from other sites that hosted right-wing content. On Monday, Parler, a social networking site that became popular with Trump supporters for its free approach to freedom of expression, went out after Amazon withdrew its computing services. Apple and Google had previously removed Parler from their app stores. Parler said he is looking for a way to get back online.
This is a developing story and will be updated.