Donald Trump Will Have His YouTube Page Reinstated
Donald Trump will be able to use his YouTube page for the upcoming presidential campaign.
This change comes after years of being banned due to obsessive groupthink on the part of social media companies.
After the events of January 6th, Trump was banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, based on, well, not much.
In fact, subsequent releases of inside information showed that Twitter executives essentially created rules on the fly to justify banning the sitting president.
He remained banned on Twitter until Elon Musk purchased the platform and reinstated the account. Trump has not posted there since, preferring to remain on Truth Social.
According to a statement, the channel is able to “upload new content” starting Friday.
"Starting today, The Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and the ability to upload new content is restored," Leslie Miller, YouTube's vice president of public policy, said. "We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, balancing that with the importance of preserving the opportunity for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election. This channel will continue to be subject to our policies, just like any other channel on YouTube."
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One before departing Harlingen, Texas on January 12, 2021. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump Reinstatement a Win For Free Speech
This is undoubtedly a major win for freedom of speech on the internet.
But the concerning thing is that YouTube never acknowledged it was wrong to ban Trump in the first place.
There was never any justification to remove any of his social media platforms, only virtue signaling from politically motivated tech executives.
Restricting a major communications tool from a sitting president was indefensible and unnecessary. It would be similarly indefensible for someone currently running for president.
Soon after the announcement, Trump posted a new video to YouTube.
He is, indeed, back.