UPDATED 20:17 EDT / JANUARY 26 2022

POLICY

YouTube permanently bans Fox host Dan Bongino for COVID misinformation

Google LLC-owned YouTube today permanently banned Fox host Dan Bongino after he tried to get around a previous suspension for breaching the company’s COVID-19 misinformation policy.

The conservative commentator (pictured) had previously fallen afoul of YouTube’s rules after apparently questioning the efficacy of masks in the time of the pandemic. During that suspension, he posted on YouTube again, but this time on another channel usually reserved for short clips from his radio broadcast.

After being accused of allowing too much COVID-related misinformation to surface on the platform, YouTube has tried to crack down on dubious health information and anti-vaccination content, although handing out a ban for life to public figures doesn’t happen often. The most well-known banning of such a figure is when former President Donald Trump got the boot in 2021 for matters relating to inciting violence. One of the most well-known people to receive a ban for health-related matters is anti-vaccination advocate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As for Bongino, he apparently posted content relating to masks, not talking scientifically about their efficacy, but saying they were useless. He was later accused of posting more content that met YouTube’s criteria for COVID-19 misinformation, and then while suspended he doubled down on his mask claim.

It seems he may have thought that YouTube wouldn’t take action, posting a video prior to the ban titled, “I’m Daring YouTube to Do This.” Like many conservative pundits, he has also talked in the past about being “silenced,” so the ban no doubt will bolster his fans’ beliefs that YouTube is a totalitarian entity.

“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,” YouTube said in a statement to the New York Times.

The pundit was once a New York City police officer and had worked in the past for the Secret Service, making him a popular figure among conservative viewers. His YouTube channel had amassed 882,000 subscribers, and he also has a large following of about 2 million subscribers on the video streaming site Rumble.

Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

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