Two of R. Kelly’s YouTube channels have been permanently removed by the platform, a week after he was found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
YouTube pulled down the R&B singer’s official channels, ‘RKellyTV’ and ‘RKellyVevo’, while prohibiting R. Kelly from using, creating, or owning any other channels on the platform.
It is worth mentioning that the terminated channels had more than 5 million subscribers combined and housed videos such as ‘I Believe I Can Fly’, ‘Bump N’ Grind’, and ‘Ignition’ (Remix).
The move was made in accordance with YouTube’s creator responsibility guidelines, which allows them to suspend a channel if its owner is convicted of or pleads guilty to egregious crimes and their channel’s content is closely related to the crimes.
In a statement released by YouTube, it cited the fact that R. Kelly’s prosecution was based on the allegation that he leveraged his celebrity and status in the music industry to sexually abuse women and young girls.
Touching on the issue, YouTube Vice President, Nicole Alston 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”.
Meanwhile, existing R. Kelly content uploaded by other users, however, will still be allowed on YouTube, while the 54-year-old singer’s catalog will continue to be available on the platform’s paid streaming service, YouTube Music.
That notwithstanding, Kenyette Tisha Barnes, one of the founders of the #MuteRKelly campaign, which seeks to stop the reign of terror of R Kelly, told local media that she believes YouTube’s move is “the beginning of a seismic paradigm shift of R. Kelly’s legacy”.
The official #MuteRKelly Twitter account reacted to the news by calling on other streaming services to follow YouTube’s lead. “Waiting on you @youtubemusic, and you too @Spotify @AppleMusic @AmazonMusic, etc to #MuteRKelly now”.
Currently, R. Kelly’s music is still available on Spotify, Apple Music, TIDAL, and Amazon Music.
It can be recalled that in 2018, Spotify removed Kelly’s music from their owned and operated playlists in line with its ‘Hate Content and Hateful Conduct’ policy. Apple Music and Pandora took similar action.
However, Spotify’s decision prompted backlash from across the music industry and R. Kelly’s streams actually increased. It’s unlikely YouTube’s move will provoke a similar response following the singer’s guilty verdict.
On September 27, 2021, R. Kelly was convicted on all charges in his highly publicized racketeering and sex trafficking case in New York.
The ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ singer was found guilty of one count of racketeering, with 14 underlying acts including sexual exploitation of a child, bribery, kidnapping, and sex trafficking charges. He was also found guilty of eight additional counts of violations of the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law.
R. Kelly will be sentenced on May 4, 2022, and faces up to 10 years or life imprisonment. He is also set to stand trial in two other sex-related cases in Minnesota and his native Chicago.
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