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YouTube suspends Donald Trump’s channel

YouTube has become the latest social network to suspend President Trump.

The Google-owned service has prevented his account from uploading new videos or live-streaming material for a minimum of seven days, and has said it may extend the period. The firm said the channel had broken its rules over the incitement of violence.

The president had posted several videos on Tuesday night, some of which remain online.

Google has not provided details of what Mr Trump said in the video it banned.

The move came hours after civil rights groups had threatened to organize an ads boycott against YouTube.

Jim Steyer – who previously helped coordinate similar action against Facebook last year – had called on Google to go further and take the president’s channel offline.

“We hope they will make it permanent. It is disappointing that it took a Trump-incited attack to get here, but appears that the major platforms are finally beginning to step up,” he tweeted after the suspension.

Google said that Mr Trump could still face his page being closed if he falls foul of its three-strikes policy.

“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 said in a statement.

“It now has its first strike and is temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a minimum of seven 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.”

Mr Trump had already been suspended by Facebook and Instagram following last week’s rioting on Capitol Hill, until at least the transition of power to Joe Biden on 20 January.

Twitter has gone further by imposing a permanent ban.

Amazon’s Twitch has also disabled his account on its platform. And Snapchat has locked his account.

Shopify, Pinterest, TikTok and Reddit have also taken steps to restrict content associated with the president and his calls for the results of the US election to be challenged.

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