YouTube has restored former President Trump’s channel, more than two years after he was suspended from the platform indefinitely following the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“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 in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “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.”
While YouTube’s statement did not include a mention of whether the videos it took action on and deleted would be restored, Axios, the first outlet to report on the restoration of Trump’s channel, stated “those videos will not be restored.”
The restoration of Trump’s channel now gives the 2024 GOP presidential hopeful a chance to buy ads on the platform for his campaign — so long as they fall in line with YouTube’s policies.
On Jan. 13, 2021 – just one week after Twitter decided to permanently suspend the then-sitting president – YouTube, citing “concerns about the ongoing potential for violence,” suspended Trump’s ability to upload new content to its platform for one week and removed some of the new content from the site.
Days later, on Jan. 27, the Google-owned video sharing site announced Trump’s YouTube channel would “remain suspended,” pointing to an “ongoing potential for violence” in the wake of the Capitol protests on Jan. 6.
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Since leaving political office, YouTube has repeatedly moved to censor or prohibit certain content featuring remarks offered by Trump in various venues.
Trump lashed out at the platform last year after it removed a wide-ranging video interview he conducted with the “Full Send” podcast.
“Whatever happened to free speech in our Country? Incredibly, but not surprisingly, the Big Tech lunatics have taken down my interview with the very popular NELK Boys so that nobody can watch it or in any way listen to it,” Trump said in a statement released by his Save America PAC.
YouTube’s decision comes more than a month after Meta announced it would restore Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. Under Elon Musk, Twitter restored Trump’s account, but the former president has not posted from the platform since his suspension.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Brie Stimson contributed to this article.