YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki said former President Donald Trump and his rhetoric still pose too much of an “elevated violence risk” for the ban on his channel to be lifted.
The CEO made the comment Thursday while speaking at the Atlantic Council think tank about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
“The channel remains suspended due to the risk of incitement to violence,” Ms. Wojcicki said, Reuters reported. “Elevated violence risk still remains.”
Mr. Trump and his allies have rejected claims that he incited the violence at the Capitol and have repeatedly pointed to calls for “peaceful” protests pertaining to the 2020 election.
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them,” Mr. Trump said Jan. 6. “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Regardless, the Republican can expect his YouTube ban to last until National Guard troops leave the Capitol.
“We will turn the account back on,” Ms. Wojcicki said. “But it will be when we see the reduced law enforcement in capitals in the U.S, if we don’t see different warnings coming out of government agencies, those would all be signals to us that it would be safe to turn the channel back on.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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