Dan Bongino
YouTube, owned by Google, “permanently banned conservative commentator Dan Bongino” on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, “saying he attempted to evade a previous suspension,” The Hill reported here.
The suspension was for calling masks “useless,” in defiance of a YouTube policy prohibiting “content denying the effectiveness of wearing masks, which the vast majority of the scientific community agrees reduces the risk of infection,” The Hill reported here 12 days ago.
The permanent ban is for evading that suspension by uploading a video on another channel, The Hill said. YouTube told The Hill that was “against our Terms of Service.”
Bongino (bio here), a former NYC cop and Secret Service agent, isn’t a dumb guy. He has master’s degrees in psychology and business administration, and now has a career as a radio talk-show host catering to a rightwing audience, and has landed appearances and guest-host gigs on Fox shows.
He also isn’t totally nuts, all the time, only some of the time. Wikipedia says he “rejected Birtherism,” the false claim (heavily promoted by Trump) that Obama is foreign-born. He’s also vaccinated, although he’s made a show of opposing vaccine mandates. That, and dissing on masks, most likely is a cynical bid for audience share. Opposing vaccines and masks, regardless of facts, is an article of faith among people who patronize the media outfits whose execs sign his paychecks.
But former Secret Service colleagues accused him of being an opportunist who exaggerated his access to White House inner workings to promote his own brand; and he’s a political klutz, having lost three runs for Congress. Even worse, Wikipedia says (link above), “In 2018, Bongino said of himself, ‘My entire life right now is about owning the libs. That’s it.'” Which is not a political platform, it’s hatemongering.
But even though he occasionally may show a bit of restraint with respect to promoting some rightwing lies, he’s not an honest information broker. His bio continues, “In November 2020, The New York Times listed Dan Bongino in its top 5 election ‘misinformation superspreaders,'” and, “In the wake of the Capitol riots, Bongino’s Twitter account was temporarily shut down January 7, 2021, for violating Twitter’s Civic Integrity policy.”
Purely based on facts, Bongino is wrong about the utility of masks, unless reputable public health and infectious disease experts are lying about their efficacy. According to the experts, who know more about this than he does, and whose conclusions are data-driven, masks are one of the most effective tools we have for slowing the spread of Covid-19 infections, which are transmitted via airborne particles.
America is a free country, and there’s no law against having wacky opinions. But free speech rights have nothing to do with it. The First Amendment only prohibits government censorship; private companies and individuals are free to choose what to publish. YouTube, a privately owned company, isn’t obligated to give anyone a soapbox. They didn’t need to cite a TOS (terms of service) violation to show Bongino the door, although they did in his case. They even gave him a prior warning, in the form of a suspension, but he figuratively flipped them off. He violated his probation, and now he goes to the woodshed.
YouTube has ample reason to tell him to take his medicine show elsewhere. He has an audience. People listen to him. Disseminating misinformation about masks encourages anti-maskers to engage in dangerous behavior. While masks protect the wearer, their primary benefit is protecting others the wearer comes in contact with. Neither YouTube, this blog, nor any other privately owned venue has to be a party to that, and has a moral duty not to be.
In any case, Bongino asked for it, and got what he deserved.