The far-right white identitarian group Identity Evropa announced yesterday that its YouTube account had been suspended for “multiple or severe violations” of the site’s community guidelines on hate speech.
Identity Evropa describes its organization as “a fraternal organization for people of European heritage located in the United States that participates in community building and civic engagement.” Identity Evropa is part of a rebranded European identitarian movement driven inspired by prior generations of white supremacy. The Southern Poverty Law Center identifies Identity Evropa to be a white nationalist hate group. The group’s founder, Nathan Damigo, helped plan the 2017 Unite the Right event that brought neo-Nazis into the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, and resulted in violence and the killing of counter-demonstrator Heather Heyer. In the United States, Identity Evropa has made headlines for quietly organized banner-drops and its recruitment of young adults into its rebranded version of the Western white supremacist movement.
Yesterday, the Twitter account associated with Identity Evropa posted that its YouTube account had been terminated. The group claimed, “This censorship is purely political—they want to silence us, but we're not going anywhere!” On the page where the group used to host videos, a message reads, “This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy prohibiting hate speech.”
Identity Evropa executive director Patrick Casey, who has recently picked up a job at the white nationalist web-based outlet Red Ice, said he was notified of the ban while he appeared on a podcast called “Revenge of the Cis” that features anti-Semitic and racist jokes presented under the guise of comedy. (That podcast is still available on YouTube. We have reached out to Google for clarification via email.)
On his own Twitter account, Casey said of YouTube, “It sounds like they just invited us to their headquarters!” Casey would add later that the group still had its videos on an “alt-tech” YouTube alternative site BitChute and that “deleting our channel is only an inconvenience, nothing more.” We asked Casey via direct message if his post was meant to be interpreted that his group plans to protest at YouTube headquarters and asked for more information. We will update this post if Casey responds.
Among Identity Evropa members is white nationalist YouTuber James Allsup, who recently caused a stir in the Spokane-area Whitman County Republican Party in Washington after he was quietly elected to the office of Whitman County Precinct Committee Officer. After Right Wing Watch first reported that then-Spokane County GOP Chair Cecily Wright had told local activists Allsup was “label-lynched” as a white nationalist despite publicly disavowing him, Wright resigned and said defending Allsup was “a serious mistake.”
