Nick Fuentes, the 22-year old conservative YouTuber and leader of the “Groyper Army” political movement, has recently had his channel America First temporarily demonetized and his streaming privileges revoked for a week after the video sharing website reviewed his content.
On the morning of January 10th, Fuentes tweeted that he had received his “first channel strike”, which resulted in a typical one-week livestreaming ban, and declaring that “it’s the beginning of the end for me on youtube”:
It’s the beginning of the end for me on youtube… I just got my first channel strike. I’m banned from streaming for one full week.
— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) January 10, 2020
Related: YouTube Demonetizes Soph – Claims She Threatened a YouTube Employee
Fuentes later followed up his initial post with screenshots of messages he had received from YouTube informing him that the ability to receive ‘Super Chats’ on his channel had been disabled, that they had removed a video titled Omar and Tlaib BANNED from Israel | America First Ep. 441 for violating their hate speech policy, and that his channel had been demonetized for at least 30 days:
Press F for Superchats pic.twitter.com/RyrRNsOGRp
— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) January 10, 2020
i had a bad day pic.twitter.com/zItM5Hxy8W
— Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes) January 10, 2020
Related: ‘Soph’ Banned From YouTube for Violating “Hate Speech” Policy
The exact reason for the actions taken against Fuentes’ account remains unclear, though it appears to have been associated with his hate speech violation.
Some have speculated that the temporary bans and demonetization were rather a result of Google’s admitted dedication to “preventing the next Trump situation.”
As of writing, neither Google nor YouTube have publicly commented on the matter.
Related: YouTube Cracks Down on Harassment and Threats, Enacts New Guidelines for Content Creators
Due to these punishments, Fuentes has stated that he will temporarily take the show to streaming platform Dlive until the bans have expired.