Josh Lekach, host of the Wrong Opinion podcast urged fellow creators to leave Patreon for free speech-friendly alternatives after the left-wing funding platform wiped out his stream of income with a permanent blacklisting.
Wrong Opinion has featured a number of prominent Republicans as guests in the past, including retired Gen. Michael Flynn, former Trump advisor Peter Navarro, and congressional candidate Joe Kent.
Patreon, which has banned numerous other conservative creators in the past, kicked Lekach off its platform after he appeared on The American Journal with Harrison Smith, a show on InfoWars.
Prior to his ban, Lekach had 725 supporters on Patreon, a major source of income.
Lekach has since set up a fund on GiveSendGo, the platform famous for hosting successful fundraisers for Kyle Rittenhouse and the Canadian truckers’ convoy after they were banned on other funding platforms.
The podcaster has also set up a page for supporters to subscribe at Gumroad, and a Bitcoin address for direct crypto donations.
“CREATORS! Don’t trust Patreon with your income,” wrote Lekach on Twitter. “They’ll wipe it out in a second.”
In a message to Lekach, Patreon accused him of violating its “community guidelines on hate speech,” although the platform did not specify what item of content in Lekach’s podcasts violated the rules.
Patreon has been embroiled in multiple censorship controversies in the past. In 2018, the funding platform experienced a major boycott of both creators and donors after it censored the popular YouTuber Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon of Akkad.
The ban resulted in several major users of the platform, including Sam Harris, closing their accounts. Free speech-friendly alternatives to Patreon, such as Locals and SubscribeStar have since experienced significant growth.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.