YouTube allows ex-President Trump's channel to upload videos ahead of 2024 election
Jonah ValdezMarch 17, 2023
YouTube
has
reinstated former President
Donald
Trump’s channel, allowing him to upload videos ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the video platform announced Friday.
A host of social media sites
had
banned Trump from
their platforms after its platoforms since
the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the
U.S.
Capitol. YouTube had cited “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence” and violation of its “policies for inciting violence.”
In its decision to reverse course, YouTube
which is owned by Google
acknowledged it had considered such threat of violence
,
but wanted to give voters a fair opportunity to hear from major presidential candidates
, echoing . The move echoed
a similar decision from Meta Platforms, which in January let Trump back on
to
Facebook and Instagram. Trump announced his 2024 run in November.
“Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YouTube said in a statement on Twitter. “We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”
“This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube,” YouTube added.
Shortly after
it was being
reinstated, Trump’s channel uploaded a campaign commercial
,
titled, “I’M BACK!”
and The spot
features news footage of Trump speaking to a crowd on
the 2016
election night
in 2016
. Trump also posted the video to his Facebook
page, account,
its first activity in more than two years.
“Sorry to keep you waiting complicating business,” Trump said in the archived footage
,
before
flashing
an advertisement
flashed
for the campaign’s texting service.
In December, the House panel investigating the
events of
Jan. 6
attack
recommended that Trump be criminally prosecuted for his role in the insurrection, in which a mob violently attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Even so, Trump is considered a front
–
runner in the Republican primary race.
He has not yet been charged.
Twitter, which had also banned Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection, reinstated
himTrump
in November after
new owner and chief executiveits CEO
Elon Musk
polled users about whether the former POTUS should be brought back.held a poll for users.
Twitter had been Trump’s preferred platform
in communicating with the public
during his presidency. However,
the Truth Social founderTrump
has not used his
account since it was reactivated; his last tweet
was coming
days after the Capitol attack.
After
Trumphe
was reinstated on Twitter
,
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded to Musks poll by tweeting video of the
Jan. 6 insurrection attack on the Capitol.
She tweeted that when Trump was last on Twitter,
the siteit
was used to incite an insurrection, multiple people died, the Vice President of the United States was nearly assassinated, and hundreds were injured but I guess thats not enough for you to answer the question. Twitter poll it is.
