YouTube Restores Donald Trump’s Account Months After Meta
The world’s biggest video-sharing platform has restored former President Donald Trump’s channel, more than two years after the January 6 Capitol riot. The move marks a new trend of Big Tech platforms restoring accounts after restrictions are removed.
YouTube said it had evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence and balancing that with the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election. Users immediately began posting “welcome back” comments under old videos on the platform.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account months after the social media giant Meta suspended him for two years after he incited violence during the Capitol Hill insurrection in January 2021. The decision was welcomed by some politicians and campaigners who have been critical of Trump’s use of Twitter to spread misinformation.
The company’s new policy, outlined in a blog post Wednesday, “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.”
In restoring Trump, Meta said it will now also hit him with “sanctions” if he violates its content policies again. Those penalties could range from a month to two years, depending on the severity of the violation.
But many experts say that Trump will not heed Meta’s heightened standards. He’s already launched his own competing platform, Truth Social, which he has nearly 4.9 million followers on. And he has said repeatedly that he’ll never return to Twitter even if it were reinstated.
YouTube Restores Donald Trump’s Account Months After Meta
Video sharing platform YouTube on Wednesday restored former President Donald Trump’s personal account after a two-year suspension. It’s a decision that drew immediate backlash from civil rights groups and other advocacy organizations.
The move is a significant rebuke to Facebook, which has sought to block him after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, arguing that Trump’s messages could incite violence.
The move by YouTube’s parent company, Meta, also raises the stakes in a debate over tech platforms’ power to determine who gets a voice online. The company is now requiring Trump to abide by new rules, and may hit him with “sanctions” for future policy violations.
Months after Meta restored former President Donald Trump’s accounts, YouTube is taking the same approach. The video-sharing site says it will remove any future posts from Trump if they violate its community guidelines.
The move comes after a two-year suspension that began when the ex-president incited violence during the January 6 Capitol Hill riot. It also follows months of debate about how social media companies should handle political speech on their platforms.
While the decision to restore Trump’s account is seen as a win for free speech, it could lead to more heightened penalties for public figures who violate community standards again.
In the past, Twitter and many other social media platforms had barred the president for violating their content rules. But in November, Twitter reinstated him after new owner Elon Musk pledged to make the platform a haven for free speech.
YouTube
The last major social media platform with a suspension on Trump’s account, YouTube, has announced that it will remove restrictions on the former president’s channel Friday. The restrictions were put in place after the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection.
A spokesperson told CNN that YouTube is removing the restrictions after reviewing Trump’s content. The company said that “we took steps to ensure that the channel and its content were not inciting violence, and that they complied with YouTube’s policies.”
Meta also restored Trump’s account months after it banned him. The company imposed a two-year ban on Trump’s account, based on recommendations from its semi-independent oversight board.
The company’s decision to reinstate Trump marks a new approach for tech platforms, which have struggled with how to moderate posts that violate their rules or incite violence and civil unrest. It could reverberate around the world and threaten the future of social media as a tool for democracy.
