YouTube has demonetized and locked conservative commentator Steven Crowder’s account for allegedly violating the platform’s community guidelines.
YouTube blocked Crowder from uploading new content to his channel for one week and pulled one of his videos that the platform said violated its rules against spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. YouTube also booted Crowder from its YouTube Partner Program, which allows creators to run ads on videos and turn a profit, indefinitely.
“In order to monetize on YouTube, channels must comply with the YouTube Partner Program policies, which include our Community Guidelines, Google AdSense program policies, and Advertiser-Friendly Guidelines,” the platform told The Daily Wire in a statement. “Channels that repeatedly violate our policies are suspended from the partner program. In addition, we removed a video from Steven Crowder’s channel for violating our presidential election integrity policy and applied a strike, meaning uploads are suspended for one week.”
Crowder first announced YouTube’s action against him in a Monday Instagram post accusing the platform of manipulating its community guidelines to target conservatives. He also teased having “something for them [YouTube]” in response to his ban.
“I’ve been warning about this for a long time and now it’s here. BigTech, and specifically Youtube, have painted a target on Conservative’s backs for years, with yours truly being target #1,” Crowder wrote.
“Today, Google/YouTube just fired a HUGE shot across our bow. They are no longer enforcing ‘community guidelines,’ but creating entirely new ones with the express purpose of removing any and all Conservative voices of dissent,” he charged. “For the crime of investigative journalism, we are forbidden from uploading, posting or live-streaming for an entire week on the main channel. Don’t worry, we’ve got something for them.”
YouTube has demonetized Crowder once before, suspending his channel from its partnership program for over a year, from June 2019 to August 2020. As The Daily Wire reported in August:
YouTube reinstated Crowder into its Partner Program on Wednesday after suspending him on June 5, 2019, over comments and jokes he made about then-Vox journalist Carlos Maza, as well as for selling merchandise with the label “Socialism is for f*gs,” according to Tubefilter.
At the time it demonetized Crowder, YouTube had conceded that none of Crowder’s content had violated its hate policies. The video platform ultimately decided to pull advertising off of Crowder’s content after stating that the commentator had engaged in a “pattern of egregious actions” that “harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies.”
On Feb. 1, Crowder announced he was suing the social media giant Facebook for cutting off his election night livestream. The conservative commentator is suing Facebook for alleged fraud, false advertising, and monopolistic behavior.
“We’re going after Facebook based on its own words and its own promises,” Crowder’s attorney Bill Richmond told The Daily Wire at the time. “They removed the biggest stream that has ever existed, from the biggest platform that’s ever existed, with no reason.”