YouTube permanently banned both of Dan Bongino’s accounts on Wednesday after the Fox News host was initially suspended for saying masks are “useless” against Covid-19.
One of Bongino’s two accounts, the Dan Bongino Show Clips, was suspended and demonetized for seven days after the conservative commentator posted a video calling masks “useless” in stopping the spread of Covid-19, in violation of YouTube’s Covid-19 misinformation policy.
When Bongino later attempted to upload a video on his other channel during his seven-day suspension, the platform permanently banned both accounts, according to The Hill.
“When a channel receives a strike, it is against our Terms of Service to post content or use another channel to circumvent the suspension,” a YouTube spokesperson told the outlet, adding that both channels have been removed.
YouTube said Bongino — whose main account had 900,000 subscribers — will be prohibited from creating new channels “associated with his name” in the future.
The Bongino Report posted a tweet blasting YouTube following the ban: “Hilarious watching the @YouTube communists desperately try to save face after we told them to go f%^* themselves. They’re claiming we ‘tried to evade suspension.’ Really? By posting a final video LITERALLY titled ‘Why I’m Leaving YouTube’?
Bongino announced in a video earlier this week that he planned to leave the platform permanently. The conservative commentator can still be found on the video sharing platform Rumble, where The Dan Bongino Show channel has more than 2 million subscribers.