YouTube has reinstated former President Trump’s channel and allowed him to upload videos ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the video platform said Friday.
A host of social media sites banned Trump from their platforms following the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. YouTube cited “concerns about the continued potential for violence” and violated the “incitement to violence” policy.
In its decision to reverse course, Google-owned YouTube acknowledged it had considered such threats of violence but wanted to give voters a fair chance to hear from the leading presidential candidates. The move mirrors a similar decision by Meta Platforms, which Trump rejected on Facebook and Instagram in January. Trump announced his 2024 run in November.
“As of today, Donald J. Trump’s channel is no longer limited to uploading new content,” YouTube said said a statement on Twitter. “We carefully assessed the continued risk of actual violence, while also weighing the opportunity for voters to hear equally from key national candidates ahead of elections.”
“This channel remains subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube,” YouTube added.
Shortly after the recovery, Trump’s channel uploaded a campaign ad titled “I’m BACK!” The spot features news footage of Trump addressing a crowd on election night in 2016. Trump also posted the video to his Facebook page, his first activity in more than two years.
“Sorry to keep you waiting — businesses are complicated,” Trump said in archived footage, before showing an ad for the campaign’s text messaging service.
In December, the House panel investigating the events of January 6 recommended criminal charges against Trump for his role in the riot in which a mob violently attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yet Trump is considered the frontrunner in the Republican primary. He hasn’t been charged yet.
Twitter, which Trump also banned after the January 6 riot, reinstated it in November after new owner and CEO Elon Musk questioned users about bringing back the former POTUS. Twitter was Trump’s platform of choice during his presidency. However, the founder of Truth Social has not used his Twitter account since its reactivation; His last tweet was days after the attack on the Capitol.
After Trump reinstated on Twitter, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) responded to Musk’s poll by tweeting a video of the attack on the Capitol.
She tweeted that the last time Trump was on Twitter, the page had been “used to provoke a riot, several people died, the Vice President of the United States was nearly killed and hundreds were injured, but I think it’s not enough for you to answer it. Questions. That’s the Twitter poll.”
Source: LA Times