Rudy Giuliani suspended from YouTube ad program following election fraud claims

YouTube has reined in Rudolph W. Giuliani, former President Trump’s personal lawyer, following repeated violations of its rules prohibiting users from alleging widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

Mr. Giuliani has been suspended for 30 days from YouTube’s Partner Program, the company confirmed Wednesday, effectively limiting his ability to make money off any videos he uploads to the service.

YouTube pointed to its policies regarding the recent U.S. presidential election, which prohibits users from sharing content that alleges “widespread fraud or errors” changed the outcome of the race.

Mr. Giuliani, 76, has repeatedly claimed in recent videos uploaded to his popular YouTube channel that purported voter fraud resulted in Mr. Trump losing his race for reelection to President Biden.

Leading federal election, security and law enforcement officials have repeatedly stressed finding no credible evidence of any widespread fraud that might have affected the 2020 presidential race.

Nonetheless, Mr. Giuliani has continued to push discredited claims and conspiracy theories about the election through outlets including his “Common Sense” podcast, which he uploads to YouTube.

Dominion Voting Systems, a company Mr. Giuliani has baselessly accused of being complicit in the alleged election rigging, cited several of those episodes in a $1.3 billion lawsuit it filed Monday.

Responding earlier this week to Dominion’s defamation lawsuit, Mr. Giuliani called it an “act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing” and said he was considering possibly countersuing.

YouTube said Mr. Giuliani’s suspension took effect last week, essentially prohibiting him from now for monetizing his channel and accessing other features made available to Partner Program members.

Mr. Giuliani’s channel on YouTube currently boasts more than 583,000 subscribers.

The most recent episode of “Rudy Giuliani’s Common Sense” currently on its official YouTube channel was uploaded Jan. 1. Subsequent episodes were removed by the company, Mr. Giuliani said last week.

“Free Speech is under serious assault by Big Tech to favor Biden and the Left,” Mr. Giuliani posted Tuesday on Twitter. “What are you going to do about it?”