Far-right commentator and Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes has been kicked off YouTube on Monday, marking the latest social media platform to remove the Proud Boys founder.
According to a banner on his page, McInnes’ channel was “terminated” after the Google-owned video giant “received multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement.” Google did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for details on the content McInnes was inappropriately using. The move wipes out more than 200,000 subscribers for McInnes and removed the last major platform for reaching his audience, after Twitter, Facebook and Instagram removed him in recent months.
“I have a swarm of Social Justice Warrior bees surrounding me and attacking all my platforms. After Blaze TV, I figured I’d go to YouTube but they got that too. I’ve been 100% deplatformed and can no longer defend myself when people make up lies or take jokes out of context,” McInnis said in a statement obtained by TheWrap.
“When a copyright holder notifies us of a video that infringes on their copyright, we act quickly to remove content as is required of us by law. We terminate the accounts of repeat offenders,” a YouTube spokesperson told TheWrap.
Facebook banned the McInnes and the Proud Boys, a right-wing fraternal organization frequently prone to violence, for violating its policy against hate groups in October. McInnis left the group in November.
The Proud Boys formed in 2016, calling themselves “western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” McInnes was the most prominent member of the group. McInnes has denied that the Proud Boys is a white supremacist organization, but has regularly trafficked racist and anti-Semitic comments — including making a video titled the “10 things he hates most about Jews.” In response to the criticism, he later said, “No offense Nazis, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I don’t like you. I like Jews,” and added, “I wish the Israelis would embrace Christianity and Trump more.”
McInnes’ banishment from YouTube comes one day after he lost his job at CRTV, a conservative video site, following its merger with The Blaze.