*Rudy Giuliani, 76, has had his YouTube account suspended for a second time

*YouTube cited breaches 'presidential election integrity' for the suspension

*It also made note of Giuliani's promotion of nicotine, against its policies

*Giuliani was previously suspended in January for sharing election falsehoods

Rudy Giuliani has been banned from YouTube for a second time after breaching the website's policy on 'presidential election integrity' by claiming the US election was stolen from Trump.

Giuliani, who previously worked as Donald Trump's personal lawyer, will not be allowed to publish any videos on his channel, which is followed by more than 577,000 people, for two weeks.

Despite Joe Biden having been in office for more than a month now, Giuliani, 76, has continued to publish videos pushing falsehoods about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election - and his latest claim is that the election was stolen from Trump.

YouTube also cited Giuliani's promotion of nicotine in his content as a reason for the suspension.

In a statement, a YouTube spokeswoman said: '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.

'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.'

This is the second time that Giuliani has been suspended from YouTube, with the first coming back in January.

At the beginning of the year, YouTube took Giuliani off its Partner Program - which allows creators to make money off their videos.

He had been accused of repeatedly violating YouTube's policy against posting misleading information about the US election.

The 76-year-old has posted videos titled 'The Biden Crime Family's Payoff Scheme' and 'Election Theft of the Century' to his channel.

With YouTube having handed Giuliani his second strike, his channel could be shut down completely if he violates its rules again with 90 days.

Previously, former President Trump had also been cut off from his social media platforms, with YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all suspending him for publishing content.

On January 9, Twitter confirmed that Trump's account would be permanently suspended 'due to the risk of further incitement of violence'.

While Facebook said that Trump's account on the platform would remain suspended 'indefinitely' - a decision which the former president has appealed to Facebook's 'supreme court' Oversight Board.

The social media giant said in January it was deferring the decision to permanently ban Trump to its seemingly-independent Oversight Board.

Source: Sam Baker/Dailymail.co.uk

Date Posted: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021 , Total Page Views: 544