Former US President Donald Trump delivers remarks on education as he holds a campaign rally with supporters in Davenport, Iowa, US on March 13, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Google-owned Youtube will allow former President Donald Trump’s account to post new videos starting Friday limitations introduced after the January 6 uprising at the US Capitol in 2021.
The decision means Trump’s accounts on the three major platforms where he was suspended or restricted are now reinstated, in time for his expected campaign ahead of the 2024 election.Facebook Owner Target and Twitter had both before decided on restore Trump’s accounts after suspending them for fear he would incite more violence.
In 2021, then YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki he said Trump’s restrictions would be lifted when he believed the risk of actual violence had passed. The account was not terminated from the site, but could not upload new videos within the restriction.
“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence and balanced that with the importance of preserving voters’ ability to hear equally from the nation’s major candidates before the election,” said YouTube’s vice president of public policy, Leslie Miller. declaration. “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 across platforms to determine when the risk of actual violence had decreased. The company also noted that Trump’s YouTube posts tend to differ from posts on other platforms, often including re-uploads from news networks.
As of Friday, Trump’s YouTube account has more than 2.6 million subscribers.
WATCH: Anthony Scaramucci says the US needs stronger leadership and better direction
