(TheLibertyRevolution)- Google is at it again, doing everything it can to stunt the progress of conservative voices.
On Tuesday, YouTube — which is owned by Google — announced that Rudy Giuliani has been suspended from participating in the company’s ad revenue sharing program. The move will prevent former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney from earning money from YouTube when people watch his videos.
The suspension was actually put in place last week, but YouTube just confirmed it on Tuesday. It prevents Giuliani from receiving any money from the advertisements that YouTube sells directly to companies. These ads run before videos begin to play on their platform.
The action by YouTube doesn’t prevent Giuliani from posting new videos to the platform. It also doesn’t prevent Giuliani from running paid product endorsements within his videos — which is a way many content creators on YouTube make significant money.
Jessica Gibby, a spokesperson for YouTube, said Giuliani was suspended from the ad partner program because he violated the sites rules against “posting misleading information about the recent presidential election” on multiple occasions. She said he would be eligible to appeal that suspension in 30 days.
Giuliani commented on the suspension via text message to the Washington Post, saying YouTube’s actions were “predatory” and “dangerous.” He also said the suspension should open people’s eyes to antitrust concerns.
He wrote:
“It’s a very, very seductive road to authoritarianism.”
Giuliani has built quite the following on YouTube. His channel has garnered more than 500,000 subscribers. Some of the videos he has posted have gotten more than 100 million views over just the past year.
He has seen his viewership go down in recent months, though. The most recent video with the highest viewership was one past last month that got 1.2 million views. Still, that’s a significant number of viewers, and a significant amount of ad revenue that YouTube is generating from it.
The Post said it was unclear how much money Giuliani rakes in from the YouTube ad revenue sharing program. The biggest stars on YouTube make millions of dollars each year posting videos on the platform. However, those people often have large endorsement deals. They also market products on the platform that they sell elsewhere.
While even the biggest stars bring in a good amount of money from the ad revenue sharing program with YouTube, it’s uncertain how big of a percentage of their overall income that typically represents.
In addition to stunting Giuliani’s ability to make money on the platform, YouTube also extended its suspension of Trump’s channel indefinitely. The company initially blocked him on January 12, but now has decided to extend that ban even longer.
When the company initially suspended Trump’s channel, they said they were giving him the first of his three strikes before permanently banning him. The initial suspension was one week, but that was extended for another week last Tuesday. This latest suspension is “indefinitely,” though, so it’s not clear if the channel will be turned back on again.
As Ivy Choi, a spokesperson for YouTube, said in a statement:
“In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J. Trump channel will remain suspended.”
