Google-owned YouTube has temporarily banned former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani from uploading and streaming videos on its platform.
The suspension comes after Giuliani claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Giuliani has served as the former president’s attorney for the Trump Campaign’s bid to prove allegations of election fraud following the November 2020 presidential election. The former New York City mayor has also been using YouTube for his popular podcast, Rudy Giuliani’s Common Sense.
“We removed content from the Rudy W. Giuliani channel for violating our sale of regulated goods policy, which prohibits content facilitating the use of nicotine, and our presidential election integrity policy,” said a YouTube spokesperson in a statement.
“Additionally, in accordance with our long standing strikes system, we issued a strike against the Rudy W. Giuliani channel, which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming,” the spokesperson added.
YouTube’s “strike” policy bans its users from uploading content for two weeks if they violate the company’s policies twice within a 90-day time period. In January, the former mayor was suspended from the platform for the first time.
This means that if Giuliani is determined to be in violation of the platform’s rules one more time in the same timespan, then his YouTube channel will be permanently banned.
Giuliani was also removed from YouTube’s Partner Program — which allows creators to earn ad revenue from their videos — in January. At that time, YouTube had also extended its suspension of former President Donald Trump’s account on the platform.
It is against YouTube’s policy to upload any content making fraud claims relating to last year’s election, as well as “content alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of a historical US Presidential election.”
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