Donald Trump
Today, YouTube declared that the suspension of the former president’s YouTube channel will be lifted. In the week following the incident on the US Capitol building in January 2021, the account had been limited. YouTube at the time stated that it may be possible for Trump’s social media profiles to be used to instigate further violence, following the lead of websites like Twitter and Facebook.
YouTube has now modified its strategy as the former president prepares to run for president in 2024.
1/ Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content. 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.
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 17, 2023
The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which the former president founded after failing to win re-election in 2020, promotes itself as “cancelling cancel culture” and “standing up to big tech.
Trump’s absence from mainstream social media may be explained by his connections to his own technological firm. Trump has contractual duties to Truth Social over his tweets, according to information that was disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year regarding TMTG’s ambition to go public via SPAC. Trump is prohibited from reposting a “truth” he posts on Truth Social to any other social media platform for six hours.TMTG has not yet made its financial information public.