Former US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on education during a campaign rally with supporters in Davenport, Iowa, US on March 13, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Google– belongs YouTube will allow former President Donald Trump’s account to post new videos starting Friday, lifting restrictions imposed after the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol.
The decision means that Trump’s accounts on the three major platforms where he had been suspended or restricted have now been reinstated ahead of his anticipated 2024 campaign. Owner of Facebook Meta and Twitter both previously decided to reinstate Trump’s accounts after suspending them over fears he was inciting further violence.
In 2021, then-YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said Trump’s restrictions would be lifted if he believed the risk of real-world violence had decreased. The account was not removed from the site, but could not upload new videos due to restrictions.
“We carefully assessed the continued risk of real-world violence, balancing that with the importance of preserving the opportunity for voters to hear equally from major national candidates ahead of the election,” YouTube’s vice president of public policy, Leslie Miller, said in a statement. “This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube.”
YouTube said its trust and safety teams analyzed factors such as government security warnings and violent rhetoric on various platforms to determine when the risk of real-world violence had decreased. The company also noted that Trump’s posts on YouTube differ from those on other platforms, often including re-uploads from news networks.
As of Friday, Trump’s YouTube account has more than 2.6 million subscribers.
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