Earlier this week, R. Kelly, a notorious R&B musician who was convicted of sex trafficking, had two of his YouTube sites permanently blocked.
YouTube Music will continue to provide access to Kelly's songs and albums, and user-generated material integrating Kelly's music will continue to be permitted on the main YouTube platform.
In September, a federal jury found R. Kelly guilty of sex trafficking after hearing evidence that he had exploited his celebrity for more than 20 years to entice women and underage girls into his orbit for sexual purposes.
"RKellyTV and RKellyVevo" were deleted off one of the world's major video platforms, and the singer will no longer be allowed to create or operate any additional YouTube channels, according to a statement released by the company on Monday.
But YouTube hasn’t banned R. Kelly’s music: The internet video giant will continue to offer the singer’s music catalog on YouTube Music https://t.co/f40NOS0Ycu — Variety (@Variety) October 6, 2021
In compliance with YouTube's creator responsibility guidelines, the channels associated with Kelly were removed off the platform. if channel owners are accused of extremely severe crimes, the platform has the authority to terminate their channels if the content is closely linked to the wrongdoings and the channel owners have been convicted or pleaded guilty.
In the event that people attempt to watch videos on the now-defunct channels, they will receive a message stating that "This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been canceled."
According to Bloomberg, "R. Kelly's egregious actions warrant penalties in addition to standard enforcement measures due to the potential for widespread harm."
Many people on social media redoubled their efforts after Kelly's conviction was announced last week, arguing, among other things, that it was wrong to provide a global platform - and potentially lucrative royalty revenues to someone who had previously been convicted of serial sexual predatory behavior.
Spotify, Apple, and Amazon did not reply to inquiries about what they planned to do with Kelly's music catalog or what standards they may use to determine whether an artist's whole body of work should be removed off their platforms.
Kelly's longtime label, Sony Music's RCA Records, ended its relationship with the singer in January 2019 following months of negative press. However, the label has retained control of practically all of his work, which is still available on major music streaming platforms such as Spotify.
