YouTube permanently bans Dan Bongino

YouTube on Wednesday permanently banned conservative commentator Dan Bongino from the platform, saying he attempted to evade a previous suspension.

The Fox host uploaded a video to his main channel while his secondary channel, which primarily hosted short clips from his digital radio show, was actively suspended for violating YouTube’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.

“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 Hill.

Both of Bongino’s channels have been removed and he will not be able to create a new one in the future, the platform said. 

The YouTube spokesperson confirmed that attempts to make new channels “associated with his name” will also be denied.

Bongino had announced in a video posted earlier this week that he was already planning on leaving YouTube, and the nearly 900,000 subscribers on his main channel, for good. He had previously pledged to do the same with Twitter over his unsubstantiated claims of anti-conservative bias on that platform, but ultimately returned to the service.

Bongino will likely continue posting his videos on Rumble, a YouTube competitor championed by some on the far-right that he was an early investor in.

“The Dan Bongino Show” channel, which posts full episodes of his weekday show, boasts over 2 million Rumble subscribers.

The platform’s popularity has soared recently, reaching over 30 million monthly viewers in the first quarter of 2021 from under 2 million in the fall of 2020.

It has attracted support from former President Trump, whose new media venture TRUTH Social announced a partnership with Rumble last month, and politicians including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who announced he would be joining the platform after being suspended from YouTube.