The account used by US President Donald Trump’s has been closed for “a minimum of seven days” by YouTube over concerns about “the ongoing potential for violence.”
The video sharing website announced the news in a pair of tweets early on Wednesday.
It said in a Twitter statement: “After review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J Trump’s channel for violating our policies.
“It now has its 1st strike & is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a *minimum* of 7 days.
“Given the ongoing concerns about violence, we will also be indefinitely disabling comments on President Trump’s channel, as we’ve done to other channels where there are safety concerns found in the comments section.”
The decision follows fellow social media giants Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, who decided to remove the president’s accounts in the wake of last week’s attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Mr Trump’s supporters.
Twitter said in a statement on its blog on Friday it had decided to block Mr Trump’s account after a review of two of the president’s tweets posted on Friday found they had violated its glorification of violence policy.
Meanwhile Facebook suspended Mr Trump’s account through to January 20, the day of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, with the possibility of an indefinite ban.
Some prominent political figures have expressed concern over the suspension of Mr Trump’s social media accounts, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling it “problematic”, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the move “raises a very important question” about social media companies “taking editorial decisions”.
