YouTube added that it would be “indefinitely disabling comments” on Trump’s account, again citing “ongoing concerns about violence” surrounding his online postings.
The company did not specify what content violated its policies.
Key context: The move comes as YouTube faces heightened pressure from Democratic lawmakers and left-leaning activists to crack down on Trump’s posts, after rivals Twitter and Facebook took more aggressive steps to limit the president’s accounts on those platforms.
After the rioting at the Capitol, YouTube removed a Trump video that repeated his baseless allegations that the election was “stolen” from him. It said after the fact that it would begin enforcing suspensions and potentially permanent bans against accounts that violated policies against spreading baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
The announcement meant Trump would need to violate YouTube policies three times going forward to draw a permanent ban. His first strike came Tuesday.
Civil rights groups demanded earlier Tuesday that YouTube remove Trump’s account, threatening to launch a broad boycott against the company if it did not, Reuters reported.
Trump’s reaction: The president earlier Tuesday lashed out at tech companies for suspending and restricting his accounts, saying in his first remarks to reporters since the riot that tech companies had done a “horrible thing for our country and to our country.”
Source:politico.com/news