R. Kelly’s Channels Taken Down On YouTube

After the conviction of American RnB singer,R.Kelly, who was found guilty of sex offences last week,two of his channels on
YouTube has been permanently suspended;they are the RKellyTV (which had 3.5 million subscribers) and RKellyVevo (which had about 1.6 million subscribers).

YouTube is citing a violation of its terms of service,as well as Variety report.The platform will not be allowing him to create any new channels in future.

Attempts to watch videos on the now-removed channels display a message that says, “This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated.”

YouTube has however not banned R. Kelly’s music, they will continue to offer the singer’s music catalogue on YouTube Music.

Kelly’s official accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have also recently been disabled.

In a memo written by YouTube VP of legal ,Nicole Alston,as reported by Bloomberg,she said,
“Egregious actions committed by R. Kelly warrant penalties beyond standard enforcement measures due to a potential to cause widespread harm,”

“Ultimately, we are taking this action to protect our users similar to other platforms.”
YouTube’s move to delete Kelly’s channels comes eight days after a federal jury found him guilty of racketeering and eight charges of an anti-sex trafficking law. Kelly is set to be sentenced on May 4, 2022.

The 54-year-old faces 10 years to life in prison.

YouTube said it pulled down the channels linked to R. Kelly in accordance with its “creator responsibility guidelines”.

That policy prohibits “on- and/or off-platform behaviour that we may consider to be inappropriate,” including “intending to cause malicious harm to others” and “participating in abuse or violence, demonstrating cruelty, or participating in fraudulent/deceptive behaviour leading to real-world harm.”