Nick Fuentes credits social media platforms and their supposed policy reversals as “the number one thing” for his recent rise in popularity
According to Fuentes, it was “like a switch was flipped” when “Instagram stopped deleting” clips of him “in like January,” and after he appeared on a show in May, “all of a sudden ... the YouTube channel was not banned” and “the video was not taken down”
Published
Citation
From the December 26, 2025, edition of America First, streamed on Rumble
NICK FUENTES (HOST): And starting with number one, the number one thing which accounted for all this success this year -- Why did the show blow up so much this year? The number one thing, which nobody will even mention and nobody has mentioned, is that this is the first year that they simply stopped censoring me. That's it. It's that simple.
Because for those that don't know me or don't know a lot about me, you might've heard for many years I was the most censored, canceled person in the country. And I don't say that to make myself a victim. I don't say that to be a martyr. It is just a fact that for years I was completely censored, completely blacklisted, blackballed, and everything that that entails. And that went into overdrive in 2021 after January 6. In 2021, I was banned on everything. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, DLive, Twitter, TikTok.
I was banned on every major social platform, but I was doubly banned because I was also banned from appearing on anybody else's show. So if I went on Sneako's show or if I went on Fresh & Fit or if I went on any other show, YouTube would delete that show also. If I went on someone else's TikTok, or if I was on someone else's Instagram account, they were also banned. And it was like this for four years. So go figure, why did I not gain a lot of traction in ‘21, ‘22, ‘23, ‘24? Because I literally didn't have a platform. I was banned from everything.
The only platform that I could even livestream my show on was a platform that I made myself because that was the only streaming platform I was allowed on. It was called Cozy.tv. I had been banned from YouTube, DLive, Trovo, things you had never even heard of.
And what happened this year is there were a few specific decisions that were made.
...
Three, and this is maybe the biggest one, Instagram stopped deleting my clips. And this is something that we noticed. This is like a switch was flipped. I think in like January. All of a sudden you were able to post my clips on Instagram without being banned. And they were able to get millions of views, hundreds of thousands of views. That was never the case. It used to be the case that if you posted any clip from my show, your whole channel will get deleted. All of a sudden starting this year, you're able to post the clip without it getting taken down.
And then the last thing that happened, kind of like the last shoe to drop was around May of this year, I was able to start appearing as a guest on YouTube. This is something else where even in 2024, Candace Owens wouldn't bring me on her show because she was worried that if I was even a guest that the whole YouTube channel would get deleted. And in May for the first time, I think I did the Hodgetwins and then I did the [Digital] Social Hour with Sean [Kelly]. All of a sudden, again, I was on a YouTube show and the YouTube channel was not banned. The video was not taken down. I don't know if it was even demonetized.