YouTube lets Trump post new videos, says it evaluated risk of 'real-world violence'

Former President Donald Trump can once again upload new videos to YouTube, the company said on Twitter on Friday.

"We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election," the company said.

Trump is running again for president in 2024, and heavily utilized social media platforms in his successful bid for the White House in 2016, as well as his four years in office.

In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 violent attack on the Capitol, carried out by Trump supporters who received cues from his campaign and communicated over social media, YouTube restricted him, and he was banned from Facebook and Twitter.

In recent months, though, Facebook and Twitter have also reinstated his accounts.

YouTube had said that its ban on new content would only lift once it felt there wasn't a threat that Trump's account would incite violence.

As of Friday morning, Trump had not posted a new video to his YouTube channel, which has 2.6 million subscribers.

The top video on autoplay came from Dec. 2, 2020, where Trump spent more than 45 minutes repeating the lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that ultimately whipped up the Jan. 6 attackers into laying siege on the seat of U.S. government. The assault led to the deaths of five people.

The comments section teemed with people welcoming him back. [Copyright 2023 NPR]