Ethan Klein of the popular H3 Podcast has pointed the finger at white supremacists and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro after being suspended from YouTube for anti-semitic remarks.
In comments on Twitter, Klein, who is Jewish, suggested that the temporary ban had been spearheaded by a legion of racists who were led on by Shapiro.
“A few white supremacists successfully lobbied YouTube to suspend me, a Jewish dual citizen of Israel & USA, for anti-semitism,” Klein wrote. “Ben Shapiro & friends can virtue signal all they want but ultimately they are the ones platforming dangerous anti-semites. All I did was point it out.”
The issue began this week after Klein stated during an episode of his podcast that he wished Shapiro would be the first to get “gassed” in the event that a second Holocaust took place.
“If there’s another Holocaust and people start rounding up the Jews again I hope Ben [Shapiro] gets gassed first. Or last,” the YouTuber said.
Klein had been discussing the ties between rapper Kanye West, who has made numerous anti-semitic comments as of late, and Shapiro’s employee Candace Owens. West has repeatedly cited Owens’ work, leading Klein to suggest that the Shapiro protégé had influenced the rapper’s views.
Conservative opponents of Klein quickly spread the clip across social media while accusing YouTube of showing favoritism to left-leaning creators. But not long after, Klein received a week-long suspension.
In a statement to the Daily Dot, YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon said that Klein’s channel was given a strike for violating the platform’s harassment policy.
“We issued a strike to the channel H3 Podcast for violating our harassment policy, which prohibits content that threatens an individual with physical harm,” Malon said. “Our Community Guidelines clearly prohibit this type of content, and we remove material or issue other penalties—such as a strike—when it violates our policies.”
Supporters of Klein responded by accusing conservatives of hypocrisy for seemingly supporting the very “cancel culture” that they regularly deride.
“The same people rallying to suspend you are the same ones on twitter whining about cancel culture & free speech everyday,” one user wrote. “Hypocrisy is out of this world lololol.”
Critics of Klein shot back by arguing that the YouTuber was attempting to shift the blame for his own actions.
“To clarify: the white supremacists are the Jews who objected to you saying Shapiro should be gassed if a Holocaust happens again?” another said.
Klein again accused his detractors of being white supremacists who were only feigning concern over his comments in order to have him removed from YouTube.
“The people reporting me, excepting Ben, are tiki torch-carrying, white Christian nationalists,” Klein wrote. “They do not give a fuck about anti-semitism or Jewish people. They revel in the fact that YouTube and other institutions are so quick to act on bad faith & malicious outrage.”
Shapiro weighed in by stating that while he did not agree with Klein’s suspension, he held no remorse for the YouTuber given that he had turned against clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson earlier this year after several interviews.
“I don’t believe that Ethan Klein should be suspended from YouTube for his awful garbage,” Shapiro tweeted. “But I’ll shed no tears for a person who has routinely engaged in cancellation of others. World’s smallest violin.”
Klein later apologized to his viewers for the shakeup, adding that he “hates we’ll miss a week of the show because of another stupid joke” but that he would return next Friday just in time for Halloween.
Neither Klein nor Shapiro responded to requests for comment from the Daily Dot.
Klein currently boasts more than 3 million subscribers on his podcast channel as well as an additional 6 million on his comedy channel H3H3 Productions.
