Google‘s YouTube account will be able to post new videos from former President Donald Trump as of Friday. This is in addition to lifting restrictions that were in place after the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s accounts on three major platforms, from which he was previously suspended or restricted, are now reinstated in time for his campaign for the 2024 elections. After suspending his accounts for fear of inciting violence, Meta, Facebook and Twitter both had previously decided to restore Trump’s accounts.
In 2021, Susan Wojcicki , the then-YouTube CEO, stated that Trump’s restrictions would not be lifted if it felt there was less risk of violence in real life. Although the account was not closed, it could not upload any new videos due to the restrictions.
YouTube’s Vice President of Public Policy Leslie Miller stated in a statement that they had carefully considered the risk of real-world violence and weighed it against the importance of keeping voters able to hear equal from all major candidates. “This channel will remain subject to our policies just as any other YouTube channel.”
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YouTube stated that its safety and trust teams had analyzed factors such as government security alerts, violent rhetoric across various platforms in order to determine when there was less risk of violence. YouTube also pointed out that Trump’s YouTube posts are different from other platforms. This is often due to reuploads from news media.
Trump’s YouTube account had more than 2.6 Million subscribers as of Friday.
