Update (10/8/24): On October 8, Woods posted, “After almost 6 years, YouTube has permanently suspended my channel,” alongside an image of a message from YouTube saying Woods’ channel had been banned for “severe or repeated violations of our hate speech policy.” YouTube has since confirmed to Media Matters that Woods’ channel has been terminated.
Keith Woods, a known white nationalist who has openly described himself as a “raging antisemite,” hosted a livestream with fellow white nationalist Nick Fuentes — who was banned by YouTube in 2020. During the livestream, Woods bragged that he was earning “huge money,” strongly implying that YouTube’s “Super Chat” feature was a source for it.
In February, Media Matters reported that Woods was streaming and earning revenue on YouTube, with ads appearing on his videos containing interviews with other extremist figures, and viewers sending at minimum hundreds of dollars in contributions via the platform’s Super Chat feature. The feature enables viewers on YouTube to pay creators to highlight their comments during a livestream, with creators receiving 70% percent of the revenue sent via Super Chat.
Following Media Matters’ reporting, Woods said that YouTube had given his channel a “strike,” referring to the platform’s penalty system for channels with content that “violates our Community Guidelines,” though the platform did not ban Woods and it seemingly did not demonetize him. In response to the strike, Woods said that he had “privated all of … my [his] political content” on YouTube and implied he would try to avoid moderation by streaming on YouTube, but then quickly taking down the stream and uploading it to Rumble instead.
On August 24, Woods apparently streamed on YouTube with Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and white nationalist who was banned from YouTube in 2020 for hate speech. During the stream, they discussed “the issue of Jewish power.” (The YouTube video has since been made private, but a video with the same title and video description was also uploaded to Rumble — consistent with Woods’ described tactic to avoid moderation.)
In the video, Woods went through some of the Super Chats from viewers, indicated that some were from YouTube, and suggested there was “huge money coming in tonight.” In response, Fuentes said that he was “excited” for Woods and his co-host.