YouTube has temporarily suspended Rudy Giuliani after he claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from President Donald Trump and for promoting cigars as a sponsor on the channel.
Giuliani served as attorney for the Trump Campaign’s bid to prove allegations of election fraud in the weeks after the election and has since been active on a popular podcast on YouTube called “Rudy Giuliani’s Common Sense.”
“We removed content from the Rudy W. Giuliani channel for violating our sale of regulated goods policy, which prohibits content facilitating the use of nicotine, and our presidential election integrity policy,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement.
“Additionally, in accordance with our long standing strikes system, we issued a strike against the Rudy W. Giuliani channel, which temporarily restricts uploading or live-streaming.”
Giuliani had increased sponsorships on the podcast after, earlier this year, YouTube demonetized Giuliani’s channel, stripping it of advertising revenue.
YouTube’s controversially strict policy forbids any channel from making fraud claims relating to the election, as well as “content alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of a historical US Presidential election.”
