YouTube Blacklists R. Kelly Days After He Threatened to Expose Hollywood Pedophile Ring

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YouTube erases R. Kelly from the platform just days after he threatened to expose Hollywood pedophile ring

YouTube quietly blacklisted R. Kelly on Tuesday, just days after the singer vowed to expose a Hollywood pedophile ring as part of a sentencing deal with prosecutors.

The Google-owned company displayed an error message to users attempting to keep up-to-date with R. Kelly.

“This account has been terminated for a violation of YouTube’s Terms of Service” states the message shown when trying to access content posted by R. Kelly.

According to a YouTube spokesperson, videos or channels can be removed if the creator is “participating in abuse or violence, demonstrating cruelty, or participating in fraudulent/deceptive behavior leading to real world harm.”

“Egregious actions committed by R. Kelly warrant penalties beyond standard enforcement measures due to a potential to cause widespread harm,” YouTube’s head of legal Nicole Alston wrote in a memo to employees. “Ultimately we are taking this action to protect our users similar to other platforms.”

According to a friend of R. Kelly, the singer and his management team “are working with the feds to reduce his prison time. He’ll provide evidence against other celebrities who were pedo**iles, and they’ll reduce his sentence.”

Rollingstone.com reports: R. Kelly hasn’t been entirely scrubbed from YouTube: Unofficial videos of his music uploaded by fans linger on the site, Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet films are available to purchase on YouTube, and the “R. Kelly – Topic” channel — the “Topic” pages are an autogenerated warehouse of sorts often uploaded by record labels or music publishers — still contains over 1,000 Kelly songs. However, YouTube has no plans to “terminate” the “R. Kelly – Topic” channel. (Similarly, the “Gary Glitter – Topic” page still exists on YouTube despite that imprisoned rocker’s history of child sex abuse.)

In a statement to Rolling Stone, YouTube said that Kelly is barred from using, owning or creating channels on the service; however, users can still upload his music onto the site, and YouTube Music will still house Kelly’s musical catalog.