YouTube bans Sebastian Gorka's channel for violating 2020 election policy

YouTube has banned former Trump aide and radio host Sebastian Gorka's channel for repeated violations of its "presidential election integrity policy," according to several reports.

The Washington Examiner reported Sunday that Gorka's show, "America First," was removed from YouTube's platform days ago. In a statement, a spokesperson for YouTube said that the channel had been banned for posting information that made allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

"In accordance with our long standing strikes system, we terminated the channel America First with Sebastian Gorka, for repeated violations of our presidential election integrity policy," said spokesperson Ivy Choi. "As we've publicly shared, our presidential election integrity policy prohibits content uploaded after last year's safe harbor deadline that alleges widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Any channel that violates this policy will receive a strike and channels that receive three strikes in the same 90-day period are permanently removed from YouTube, as in the case of America First with Sebastian Gorka."

Choi issued a similar statement confirming Gorka's ban to The Hill.

The Examiner suggested that an episode of "America First" titled, "Can we stop the Next Steal? Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing on AMERICA First with Sebastian Gorka," may be in violation of YouTube's policies. The episode, which is still available on popular YouTube alternative Rumble, featured a discussion about "all of the ways the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump."

Gorka did not immediately respond to the Examiner's request for comment.

On Dec. 9, YouTube enacted its Presidential Election Integrity policy and announced it would remove "content that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election."

An incomplete list of content that is not allowed on YouTube includes:

• Claims that a candidate only won a swing state in the U.S. 2020 presidential election due to voting machine glitches that changed votes.
• Claims that dead people voted in numbers that changed the outcome of the U.S. 2016 presidential election.
• Claims that fake ballots were dumped to give one candidate enough votes to win a state in a past U.S. presidential election.

"We may allow content such as the examples above if it includes countervailing views or sufficient context in the images or audio of the video itself. Providing it in the title or description may be insufficient," YouTube's guidelines state.

YouTube's content moderation policies establish a three-strike policy for violations of its Community Guidelines. If an account violates the platform's policies three times within a 90-day-period, YouTube reserves the right to permanently remove that account.