YouTube announced that channels posting misleading claims about the U.S. presidential election will be dealt with a "strike" - which means temporarily suspending them from publishing videos, USA Today reported Friday.
This, after Trump's loyalists stormed into the U.S. Capitol Thursday, prompting YouTube to take down a video in which the president expressed support for the criminal act and lied about winning the November election.
YouTube said it is clamping down on false information in the wake of the Capitol violence by immediately giving the suspension.
"Over the last month, we have removed thousands of videos spreading misinformation and claiming widespread voter fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election, including several videos President Trump posted to his channel," YouTube said in a thread quoted by USA Today.
A first strike blocks channels from posting on YouTube for one week, preventing them from uploading stories, live events and videos.
If a YoutTube account gets a second strike within a 90-day period, accounts will be blocked for two weeks. A third strike will result in a permanent deletion.
YouTube normally gives first-time offenders a warning, but that policy has been scrapped following Thursday's riots.
The move by YoutTube comes in the wake of Facebook restricting Trump from its platform at least through Biden's day of inauguration. Twitter, on the other hand, blocked his account and deleted several tweets Thursday night.
The three popular social media companies have been slammed by critics who claim their sites foster the spread of disinformation.
In a related development, Snapchat said it suspended Trump's account following Thursday's assault on the Capitol.
According to co-founder and chief executive officer Evan Spiegel, Snapchat "simply can't promote accounts in America that are linked to people who incite racial violence," TechCrunch reported.
