The exclusion of President Donald Trump from all social media platforms continues apace. As of last night, the President’s YouTube channel was suspended for one week, with the possibility of the suspension being extended. Additional clamps were put on the channel, in a sign that any discussion by the public related to the President will be squelched as well. As a reminder, YouTube is owned by Google. And what did the President do on his channel to merit suspension at this time? We don’t know because Google isn’t saying. (NY Post)

YouTube announced Tuesday it is suspending President Trump’s channel for at least a week.

Content from Trump’s channel was removed Tuesday for violating YouTube’s policies and over concerns it would incite violence, the company said in a statement to The Post.

The tech giant added it will also be disabling comments underneath videos on his channel.

“After careful review, and in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to the Donald J. Trump channel and issued a strike for violating our policies for inciting violence,” a YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement to The Post.

If we want to be generous to YouTube, we can note that one week is the typical “first offense” suspension period for allegedly violating their terms of service. But it’s also awfully coincidental that one week from today is Joe Biden’s inauguration, isn’t it? Ah, well… I’m sure that’s just a case of random synchronicity in a chaotic universe and there couldn’t be anything more sinister behind it.

As I mentioned above, we still don’t know which video on Trump’s channel brought down the ban hammer. No explanation was offered by the largest video portal on the web. All they said to the press was that their review was undertaken “in light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence.” Their spokesperson went on to cite “inciting violence” without offering an example of a video where such a violation took place.

The reality is that Google quickly joined in on the parade looking to silence the President and anyone who might still support him after the January 6 riots. As you will recall, Google removed Parler from the Google Play store listing of apps at the same time that Apple did. (Again, just another random coincidence, I’m sure.)

We can find another hint as to what the thinking is at Google when we consider the fact that YouTube didn’t just shut down the ability to upload new videos to Trump’s channel. They also suspended the comment function from all videos on the channel. Not only is the public to be barred from seeing any new videos, but they are forbidden to discuss them with each other on the platform. In the paranormal world, we would refer to this level of silence as “the Oz effect.” (Not to be confused with the Superman story arc.)

At this point, I’m not sure if there are any platforms left where Trump can participate. They even kicked him off of Pinterest and Shopify. (Who knew Donald Trump had a Pinterest account? That seems so off-brand for him.)

When the dust settles from all of this, we seriously need some congressional hearings on the level of potential anti-trust violations we appear to be seeing. If social media platforms exist to provide the public with ways to interact and express themselves, those services should be made available to all without fear or favor. If they can shut down the President of the United States with the eyes of the entire world on them, just think what they could do to someone like you.