YouTube suspends Trump’s channel for at least 7 days

OAKLAND >> YouTube said Tuesday that it had suspended President Donald Trump’s channel over concern about “ongoing potential for violence,” the latest move by one of the large technology companies to limit the president online.

In a post on YouTube’s official Twitter account, the Google-owned video site said it had suspended Trump’s account after one of his recent videos violated its policy for inciting violence.

That meant Trump would not be able to upload new content to his channel, which had about 2.8 million subscribers, for at least seven days. YouTube also said it was disabling all comments on his channel indefinitely.

Older videos that did not violate any policies remained active on his channel.

Many tech companies have moved to curtail Trump online since a violent mob of his supporters, urged on by the president, stormed the Capitol last week. In the aftermath, Facebook suspended the president from Instagram and its core social network through at least until the end of his term. Twitter followed by permanently banning Trump’s account from its service, depriving him of his favorite social media platform, where he had more than 88 million followers. Other sites, such as Snapchat, Reddit and Twitch, clamped down on Trump.

The video that prompted the YouTube suspension came from Trump’s remarks Tuesday before a trip to Texas to visit a partly completed portion of his long-promised wall along the Mexican border.

In his first address to reporters since last week’s events, Trump said that a speech he had made at a rally before the riots at the Capitol was “totally appropriate” and that an effort by Congress to impeach and convict him was “causing tremendous anger.”

The seven-day suspension from YouTube was an “important and necessary first step” that should become permanent, said Jim Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit news media watchdog group. “While it is disappointing that it took a Trump-incited attack on our Capitol to get here, it appears that all the major platforms are finally beginning to step up,” he said.

In a separate action Wednesday, Google said it would suspend political ads on its platforms until after Inauguration Day because of last week’s violent rampage at the Capitol.