YouTube has responded to a mass wave of channel deletions as YouTubers have lost their content without warning, believing they’ve been “wrongfully” terminated.
When it comes to making content on YouTube, there are plenty of rules and guidelines creators have to follow in order to stay active. If you fall foul of these rules, you’ll typically receive a set of strikes before your channel is taken down.
At the start of November, tech YouTuber Enderman sounded the alarm as a number of their YouTube channels had been terminated. The tech creator claimed that the channels had been “wrongfully” terminated after it was revealed that the reason behind the take down was for three copyright strikes on a non-English speaking channel.
The YouTuber said that they possessed no knowledge of the account in question, but they weren’t the only ones. Other creators suffered similar takedowns that came out of the blue, demanding answers from YouTube about automatic moderation and the use of AI.
YouTube finally respond to wave of channel deletions
On November 13, the Google-owned platform cleared a few things up with a lengthy announcement.
We’re seeing a lot of questions tagging @TeamYouTube and YouTube Liaison on social media about our content moderation systems and automation. This past week, @TeamYouTube worked with our Trust & Safety team to review hundreds of social posts, and corresponding YouTube channels, outside of our typical workflows,” they said.
“The vast majority of termination decisions were upheld, with only a handful of nuanced cases being overturned. We also confirmed there were no bugs or known issues with our systems. We did see screenshots of an old Help Center message circulating on social, this was related to an old issue resolved October 4, 2024, not any current issue.”
YouTube noted that a number of the channels that had their bans upheld were typically uploading “low-value” or “misleading” content. They also confirmed that they use a “mix of automation and human review” and have done for many years.
“We use automation to catch harmful content quickly and accurately. But humans are just as critical for reviewing nuance and training those automated systems. It will always be a team effort!” they added.
YouTube also said they review “one appeal per channel” and “repeateadly applying” against that will see creators pointed back to their original email. It won’t hurry anything along.
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