Popular conservative pundit Dan Bongino had his YouTube channel temporarily suspended and demonetized Friday after he said in a video that masks are “useless” in stopping the spread of COVID-19. The suspension lasts a week.
This is the Fox News personality’s first strike in the platform’s three-strike system. Three strikes in 90 days results in a permanent ban. The suspension is still significant: He has 870,000 subscribers on YouTube.
His Bongino Report Twitter account tweeted Friday, “BREAKING: YouTube just suspended Dan’s channel for daring to question the mask fascists. I guess they were waiting for an apology from us. But that’s not quite how it worked out for them.”
The tweet shared a screenshot and said it was an email Bongino had sent to a YouTube representative. In the note, he wrote, “If I said I was surprised here I’d be lying. We knew it was just a matter of time before the tyrannical, free-speech hating, bulls—, big tech s—hole you work for, would try to silence us. I anxiously waited for this moment however, as I’ve said on my show many times.”
He went on to say he’s an investor in Rumble, the YouTube competitor that has attracted a number of conservative creators in recent months. He called it “a video platform that respects free-speech.”
“As a matter of fact,” he said, “I have more than double the number of followers there, than on your s— platform.”
He said he will not negotiate and will continue to “post content questioning why masks have been totally ineffective in stopping this pandemic. I dare you to do something about it.”
A representative for YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
