- Jason Ethier, known as
JayStation , has had his last twoYouTube channels banned. - On Twitter, Ethier said he plans on suing YouTube and that the bans were "random."
- Ethier has a long history of controversy and recently called COVID "fake" on Instagram.
Jason Ethier, known online as JayStation, said he plans to sue YouTube after the platform terminated his last two channels.
The controversial YouTuber's "ImJayStation" channel had over 6.2 million subscribers before it was "terminated for a terms of service violation," according to a tweet from YouTube's creator-support account. Ethier's second channel, "666," which had under a million subscribers, was also taken off the site.
-TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) March 13, 2021
Ethier is no stranger to controversy and has been making waves in the YouTube space since he started posting in 2015. After his main channel was demonetized following a November 2016 arrest, Ethier began posting on different channels, which have since been suspended.
The creator's previous channel suspensions have all come after major controversies. YouTube did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, and it was not clear whether the creator recently violated the platform's guidelines.
In a series of tweets on Friday, Ethier claimed that he recently "switched his content" from pranks to reaction videos in an effort to comply with YouTube rules. He claimed he would sue the company.
Ethier can no longer create a YouTube channel as it would constitute
-ItsJaystation (@ItsJaystation) March 13, 2021
Ethier claimed in a video posted to Twitter at 3 AM on Saturday that the ban was "random."
-ItsJaystation (@ItsJaystation) March 13, 2021
"I'm going to have a channel on YouTube, it's going to be big but I can't tell anybody and it isn't going to have my face," Ethier says in the video.
Ethier also sparked controversy on Instagram, falsely claiming that "COVID is fake as f---" and telling followers not to get vaccinated or wear masks to protect themselves from the deadly illness.
-Josh (@Bowblax) March 14, 2021
Ethier did not respond to a request for comment.
JayStation has a long history of contention with YouTube
Ethier's original JayStation channel was dedicated to pranks, where he posted "24-hour challenge" videos that showed him seemingly entering homes and businesses with no legal right to be in.
In November 2016, Ethier was charged with five counts of trespassing by the Ottawa Police, and YouTube demonetized the channel shortly after. The Ottawa Police Department did not immediately respond to Insider's inquiry regarding the status of the charges.
Though the original JayStation channel remained up, Ethier switched over to ImJayStation to post his monetizable content. There, he became an even larger infamous figure, posting his "3 am Challenge" videos that had him pretend to use a Ouija board to contact deceased celebrities shortly after their passing, like Desmond "Etika" Amofah, XXXTentacion, and Kobe Bryant.
But the creator's most widely publicized controversy came in January 2020, when he claimed that his girlfriend, YouTuber Alexia Marano, had been killed in a drunk driving accident. Four days later, Ethier admitted that her death was just a prank, causing social-media users to pick up on the story. In a now-deleted video on his channel, Ethier said, "I expected all of this to stay on YouTube and it didn't."
Marano said in a since-deleted video that she did not want to take part in these pranks and left Ethier right after. The pair then started posting videos again together in April, though they have not appeared together in recent months.
Ethier claimed in a January 2020 video that Marano spoke to police and a warrant had been issued for his arrest. The Toronto Police Department told Newsweek in February 2020 that Ethier was charged with both assault and assault with a weapon. The status of those charges was not immediately clear at press time.
By the end of that month, Ethier's "ImJayStation" channel had also been demonetized and the YouTuber said in a video that he would be taking a break from the channel.
Ethier had transitioned to a new "666" channel last summer, creating commentary and gameplay videos to capitalize on YouTube's algorithm in an effort to reach new viewers. That channel was also removed by YouTube on March 12.