YouTube pulls two R. Kelly channels after sex-trafficking convictionKelly's songs and albums will continue to be available on the YouTube Music platform, however.
YouTube pulled two channels linked to R. Kelly after he was found guilty on all counts in a federal sex-trafficking trial last week, the company said.
However, Kelly's songs and albums will continue to be available on the YouTube Music service, and user-generated content incorporating Kelly's music is still allowed on the main platform.
YouTube terminated the channels tied to Kelly in accordance with its creator responsibility guidelines. The guidelines state that if channel owners are accused of very egregious crimes, the platform can terminate their channels if the content is closely related to the crimes and the channel owners were convicted or pleaded guilty.
Kelly, who has vehemently and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, was found guilty of being the orchestrator of a long-running scheme to recruit women and underage girls for sex.
YouTube cited the fact that the prosecution against Kelly, 54, a Grammy-winning R&B singer, was based on the allegation that he leveraged his celebrity and power in the music industry to sexually abuse women and young girls.
Kelly will no longer be able to use, own or create any other YouTube channels, the platform decided. The service will delete a new channel if it is used to re-upload content from a previously terminated account.
Kelly's music is accessible on YouTube's major competitors, including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music.
After last week's verdict, some on social media redoubled their efforts to push the major music streaming services to pull Kelly's discography, arguing in part that it was wrong to provide a global platform — and possible royalty revenues — to a convicted serial sexual predator.
Spotify, Apple and Amazon did not respond to questions about what they planned to do with Kelly's music library and what criteria they might consider for removing the entirety of an artist's work.
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