A video featured on President Joe Biden’s White House YouTube page has the comments disabled, barring Americans from leaving their remarks beneath the video.
The video, titled “President Biden Swears In Day One Presidential Appointees in a Virtual Ceremony,” was posted on Jan. 20, the day he was inaugurated.
“Comments are turned off,” a message below the video reads.
As of Thursday morning, the video has only about 116,000 views. It also has more than twice as many so-called “down” votes than “up” votes by viewers.
Screenshot: YouTube
It remains unclear who disabled the comments: Biden’s team, or YouTube.
A hyperlink from YouTube near the notification about the comments being “turned off” directs users to a page titled, “Learn why comments are disabled.”
The message from YouTube can be viewed, below:
Comments may be turned off on a video because:
- The video owner selected the setting to “Disable comments”.
- YouTube may have turned off comments on some videos for safety reasons, like to protect minors. Learn more about this type of content.
- The channel or video’s audience is set as “made for kids.” Learn more about this type of content.
- You or your system administrator have turned on Restricted Mode. Learn more about this setting.
- Comments on auto-generated Art Tracks are turned off. Learn more about Art Tracks.
In another section, YouTube says comments could be disabled to “protect minors.”
“Comments on some videos may be turned off by YouTube for safety reasons, like to protect minors. We know that comments are important to creators and viewers alike, but we also take the safety of minors very seriously,” YouTube says. “This is not a result of the content violating our guidelines.”
In total, as of Thursday morning, there are four videos posted to Biden’s White House account on YouTube; only one of the videos has the comments disabled.
Soon after Biden was inaugurated on Wednesday, the newly sworn-in president signed 17 Executive Orders, many aiming to reverse the work of President Donald Trump.
“The move by Biden comes after he repeatedly called for ‘unity’ during his inaugural address,” The Daily Wire’s Ryan Saavedra highlighted.
Woven between Biden’s messages on “unity,” the career politician repeatedly denounced racism and white supremacy.
“A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us,” Biden said. “A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear. And now a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.”
“Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we’re all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart,” he continued, emphasizing that there is a “rise of political extremism, white supremacy, [and] domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.”
Related: Biden Signs 17 Executive Orders On First Day In Office, Includes Controversial Actions
Related: Report: Biden’s Executive Actions To Occur Thematically In First Ten Days