British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen took to Twitter over the past few days to call upon YouTube to follow in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter and ban President Donald Trump from the platform.
Virtually every social media company has removed Trump...EXCEPT YouTube.
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) January 11, 2021
Trump's YouTube channel is STILL showing videos of his election lies to MILLIONS of people!
Retweet and tell @Google, @sundarpichai, @YouTube, @SusanWojcicki--do the right thing! #BanTrumpSaveDemocracy pic.twitter.com/GHiUJqnTbw
The demand comes in the wake of the storming of Capitol Hill by pro-Trump rioters on Jan. 6. Twitter and Facebook both purged Trump and various other conservative and libertarian accounts from their sites as a result of the riot, but YouTube has yet to follow suit in banning Trump.
In fact, Trump has gained followers on the platform in the past week, drawing the ire of Cohen, who insists that big tech giants must ban Trump to save democracy.
NEW: Trump's YouTube Channel has GAINED 30,000 subscribers this week.
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) January 12, 2021
Other companies are cutting ties with Trump. YouTube is profiting!
YouTube--the new Trump TV.
RT to tell @Google, @YouTube, @SusanWojcicki...stop profiting off lies and violence! #BanTrumpSaveDemocracy pic.twitter.com/EdTrVF0xvX
Cohen described the ban of Trump as "the most important moment in the history of social media" before thanking those who fought to censor the President.
This is the most important moment in the history of social media.
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) January 9, 2021
The world’s largest platforms have banned the world's biggest purveyor of lies, conspiracies and hate.
To every Facebook and Twitter employee, user and advocate who fought for this--the entire world thanks you! pic.twitter.com/jihFaOA39G
Sacha Baron Cohen, who has made a living from playing racial caricatures and fake news reporters on screen, tweeted that banning Trump was the right call by the social media giants in order to stop the spread of "hate" and "lies."
Thank you @Variety, @BrentALang
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) January 10, 2021
Borat is an absurdity and Chicago 7 really happened, but the message's the same:
When leaders lie, people die--as we saw again this week.
Our pluralist democracies can only survive if we stop hate, conspiracies and lies. https://t.co/d6ziS2XmOz
Cohen has long been a critic of social media platforms for not being censorious enough, giving a speech to the Anti-Defamation League last year calling on Facebook to ramp up its online censorship. He has never called for the censorship of left-wing activists promoting rioting and looting in major cities.