YouTube deletes new Trump video, suspends fresh uploads

San Francisco: After Twitter banning outgoing US President Donal Trump from using its platform, Google-owned YouTube has removed a new video from Trump's account for violating its content policies. The company has also issued a "strike" against his account, meaning he cannot upload new videos or live stream content for at least a week.

In an update in its official Twitter handle, Youtube said that "in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to the Donald J. Trump channel and issued a strike for violating our policies for inciting violence" after careful review.

"As a result, in accordance with our long-standing strikes system, the channel is now prevented from uploading new videos or live streams for a minimum of seven days -- which may be extended," it said on Tuesday.

YouTube has also indefinitely disabled comments on Trump's videos due to "ongoing concerns about violence".

Earlier, YouTube removed one of Trump's videos that addressed a mob attack on the Capitol. Trump's YouTube account is still visible and his past videos are still able to be viewed. Six videos were uploaded to the president's YouTube account Tuesday.

Last week, Twitter banned Trump citing "risk of further incitement of violence". The Twitter ban came after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, hoping to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.

Facebook initially prevented Trump from posting to Facebook and Instagram for 24 hours, before CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced to indefinitely suspend his account till January 20.

On Twitter, Trump's handle is now almost empty white canvas, frozen at 51 followed accounts, 88.7 million followers and two words on the centre of screen, saying "Account suspended".

The suspension from YouTube leaves Trump with few options to use a mainstream social media megaphone. As for more niche platforms, Gab, a platform popular with the far-right, is still online. But Twitter alternative Parler was knocked offline early this week when Amazon dropped it from using the tech giant's servers.

Facebook and YouTube could still allow the president access to his account again starting as early as next week.

Social media companies have been cracking down on Trump's posts for the past year, labeling and fact checking posts that contained misinformation about the coronavirus and the 2020 election. But after the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, which Trump did not immediately condemn, the mainstream social media companies decided the risk was too great to keep Trump online.

(With inputs from agencies)