Dan Bongino, the right-wing commentator and Fox News host, was permanently banned by YouTube for trying to bypass the platform’s suspension of one of his accounts over a violation of the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.
Bongino’s two YouTube channels, including his main channel that most recently had about 882,000 subscribers, have been removed from the platform. In addition, he is barred from establishing any YouTube channels in the future.
“We terminated Dan Bongino’s channels for circumventing our Terms of Service by posting a video while there was an active strike and suspension associated with the account,” a YouTube rep said in a statement to Variety. “When a channel receives a strike, it is against our Terms of Service to post content or use another channel to circumvent the suspension. If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels.”
The right-wing personality’s permanent ban comes after YouTube on Jan. 20 issued a strike and seven-day suspension on the Dan Bongino Show Clips channel for posting a video in which he questioned the effectiveness of masks against the spread of coronavirus — violating the video giant’s COVID-19 misinformation policies. Subsequently, the main Dan Bongino Show channel uploaded content within the seven-day window, which led to the termination of both channels.
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Bongino, in a YouTube video earlier this week, claimed he was going to boycott YouTube and instead post his video content on his channel on the right-wing-friendly Rumble video platform (in which he is an investor). Bongino has more than 2 million subscribers on Rumble.
A post on Bongino’s website Wednesday said, “YouTube attempted a poorly executed ‘you can’t break up with me if I break up with you first’ approach, and decided to ban Dan from the platform he just left and was never going to post to again.”
“Hilarious watching the @YouTube communists desperately try to save face after we told them to go f%^* themselves,” the Bongino Report tweeted. “They’re claiming we ‘tried to evade suspension.’ Really? By posting a final video LITERALLY titled ‘Why I’m Leaving YouTube’?”
In September 2021, YouTube announced that it was banning all content related to vaccine misinformation, expanding its previous prohibition against COVID misinformation. At the time, YouTube suspended the accounts of anti-vax proponents including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola.
