USA / YouTube extends ban on Trump over inauguration violence concerns

New York: Google-owned music platform YouTube on Tuesday announced that it is extending the ban on Donald Trump’s YouTube channel. The company said that it will extend the week-long suspension ahead of Joe Biden’s swearing in ceremony due to the potential for inciting violence. Trump was debarred from the social media handles including Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat for encouraging the Capitol Hill rioters.

"In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J. Trump channel will be prevented from uploading new videos or live streams for an additional minimum of seven days. As we shared previously, comments will continue to be indefinitely disabled under videos from the channel,” YouTube told AFP inquiry.

YouTube had suspended Trump’s channel for seven days and removed a video for violating its guidelines. "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," said YouTube had said in a statement. The Google-owned platform had also disabled comment section on the channel

Earlier this week, Snapchat had permanently banned Trump’s account. The company had earlier suspended his account indefinitely but the ban was later made permanent. Announcing the Trump, Snapchat said in a statement, “Last week we announced an indefinite suspension of President Trump’s Snapchat account, and have been assessing what long term action is in the best interest of our Snapchat community. In the interest of public safety, and based on his attempts to spread misinformation, hate speech, and incite violence, which are clear violations of our guidelines, we have made the decision to permanently terminate his account.”In 2020, Snap had spotted promoting Trump’s video in the Discover Feed.

Trump’s accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit were blocked indefinitely after the president was found violating community guidelines. It was found that Trump in his videos had hailed the rioters who invaded the Capitol Building when Biden was being certified as the US President. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg during a conference revealed that the social media giant has no plans to lift the Trump ban. She said the policies of the company are above the US President. In the Reuters Next conference, Sandberg said that she was happy that Facebook banned Donald Trump’s Facebook account.