YouTube
Content RemovedYouTube removed hundreds of cryptocurrency related videos from dozens of channels without any warning whatsoever. Many of the channels were also issued community guideline strikes.
Luckily, YouTube “looked into” this and found that it “was a mistake” to remove hundreds of videos and punish dozens of channels. A YouTube spokesperson said the following in a statement to CoinDesk:
With the massive volume of videos on our site, sometimes we make the wrong call. When it’s brought to our attention that a video has been removed mistakenly, we act quickly to reinstate it. We also offer uploaders the ability to appeal removals and we will re-review the content.
The @TeamYouTube Twitter account published the following statement in response to one of the creators who had videos removed:
Hey there, really sorry about this! This was an error on our side during the review process and has been fixed now. All the videos should be reinstated and strikes resolved. Please let us know if you have any q’s.
At the time of this writing, several of the YouTubers still have not had all of their removed videos reinstated. However, it’s reasonable to expect that YouTube would need some time to reinstate such a large amount of content.
This highlights (once again) that a centralized platform can censor a huge volumne of content with little to no warning. Kim Dotcom warned via Twitter that there will be future attempts to “silence the crypto community.” However, Tim Pool is the winner for the most concise summary on the matter:
The stupidest thing anyone can do is think they can run a business on YouTube without having a backup plan.