YouTube Bans Gorka Because He Won’t Stop Playing Imagine Dragons
The notoriously combative Trump ally has regularly played Imagine Dragons songs on his radio show, “America First.”
Alex Wong
YouTube banned Sebastian Gorka from its platform on Monday, apparently because the former Trump White House adviser refused to stop playing songs from pop rock band Imagine Dragons on episodes of his radio show that were later uploaded to the site.
Gorka, a notoriously combative Trump ally, has regularly played Imagine Dragons songs on his radio show, “America First.” That’s put him at odds with the band’s lead singer, Dan Reynolds, who has been calling on Gorka to stop using the band’s songs on his show since August.
“Please stop playing imagine dragons on your show @SebGorka,” Reynolds tweeted on August 23.
Gorka kept playing the band’s song “Radioactive,” though, prompting Reynolds to say on Oct. 24 that Universal Music Publishing Group had attempted to block Gorka from uploading videos with the song to the site.
According to Reynolds, though, Gorka continued to keep uploading more videos.
Now Gorka’s love of Imagine Dragons appears to have cost him his YouTube account. Gorka’s channel was deleted from YouTube on Monday afternoon, with a YouTube spokesperson confirming to The Daily Beast that Gorka’s channel “was terminated due to multiple copyright strikes.”
The YouTube spokesperson declined to say what song had prompted the copyright takedown notices. But the complaints were filed by Universal Music Publishing Group—the same company Reynolds had said was attempting to stop Gorka from uploading the song.
Gorka, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, didn’t appear to realize on Monday afternoon that his channel had been deleted. After one Twitter user complained that Gorka’s links were going to his now-deleted channel, Gorka mocked the poster, tweeting “you really should try harder” and ending the message with a laughing-crying emoji.