Rudy Giuliani Has Been Deplatformed
For the second time so far this year, former New York City Major and Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani has been suspended from YouTube.
This article is more than 2 years old
Things have not been going great for Rudy Giuliani in recent months, from his head leaking during an interview, farting in court, making a press conference at the wrong Four Seasons, and becoming the unexpected star on Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. But now, Rudy Giuliani has been suspended by YouTube for the second time this year.
Rudy Giuliani’s second suspension of the year is due to making false fraud claims about the 2020 US presidential election. This was also the reason for Giuliani’s first suspension, as YouTube tried to crack down on misinformation, which also led to Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast being taken down on the site. Because this is Giuliani’s second strike against his channel, Giuliani cannot upload any videos to his site for two weeks. In addition to these two suspensions, YouTube has stated that Giuliani has promoted nicotine on his channel, which also violates YouTube’s rules.
In a statement made to The Verge, YouTube stated that the company removed Rudy Giuliani’s videos because it violated the company’s regulated goods policy, and also violated the site’s presidential election integrity policy. In addition to being unable to upload videos, Giuliani will also not be able to live-streaming through YouTube over the next two weeks.
But through YouTube’s three-strike policy, if he violates YouTube’s policies again within 90 days of his first strike, Rudy Giuliani’s channel will be permanently removed from the site. Despite YouTube suspending Giulian for two weeks, the former Mayor of New York City is still prevalent and posting on other social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.
In recent months, many social media sites have become more adamant about spreading misinformation, especially after the storming of the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. The most obvious example of this attempt to stop the spread came from Twitter, who at first posted misinformation tags to many tweets from former President Donald Trump. After the events at the Capitol, Twitter suspended Trump’s account on January 8th, then closed his account permanently. Trump was also banned from social media sites like Facebook, Snapchat, and also YouTube.
Rudy Giuliani was, in fact, one of the speakers at the “Save America” rally, which led to the storming of the Capitol. During his speech, Giuliani also stated several conspiracy theories about how voting machines were rigged, calling the election “crooked,” then calling for “trial by combat.” Last month, U.S. Representative and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie Thompson sued Donald Trump for conspiracy to incite violence at the Capitol. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit were the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Yet at least social media sites are doing what they can to try and stop disinformation from spreading and causing another incident like the events of January 6th. However, from the looks of Giuliani’s other social media, he’s still not against making over-the-top claims, like saying that companies failing to work with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is akin to the return of the Salem Witch Trials. But one more slip-up from Giuliani soon, and it looks as though at least YouTube will be done with him.
