YouTube briefly banned 15-year-old channel with no strikes and won’t say why

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“I have read their policies that they linked,” Pavlov told Ars. “We are not even remotely breaking any of those rules they have. We don’t spam (we post 5-10 videos per month max, 40-50 comments a month max), our content is all original, our thumbnails are made by YouTube itself from our videos (nothing misleading/deceptive there).” Sinesvibes has also “never had a copyright claim on what we do” or “received any warnings, flags, or negative reports,” Pavlov said.

In the email sent to Pavlov notifying him of his channel ban, YouTube admits that it sometimes makes mistakes, while apologizing for the “very upsetting news.” Similarly, in the email confirming his channel had been reinstated, YouTube would only explain that in trying to make YouTube a safe space, “sometimes we make mistakes trying to get it right. We’re sorry for any frustration our mistake caused you.”

YouTube’s spokesperson, Boot Bullwinkle, did not respond when Ars asked if it was possible to know what content triggered the mistaken channel ban or confirm that Sinesvibes had no strikes on record prior to the ban. Bullwinkle would only confirm that YouTube considered this case resolved, then stopped responding.

Pavlov’s story isn’t new, of course, as YouTubers have been railing against automated content removals for years. But Sinesvibes’ longstanding good reputation on YouTube should have counted for something, Pavlov vented on Bluesky, and more human review could help YouTube detect false red flags before channels are removed and avoid alienating longtime users who obviously aren’t violating community rules. CDM, a news service for digital music creators following the Sinesvibes drama, also called for more human oversight of automated content bans, as “the better solution for everyone” to “reduce false positives.”

“How they are willing to insanely shut down a 15-year-old channel with not a single issue on record, without any warning or question, is beyond crazy,” Pavlov posted on Bluesky.

To Pavlov, who also uses Vimeo but otherwise has few alternatives to YouTube, all he wants to move forward promoting his business on YouTube with confidence is a little more information about what generated the false red flag.

“Just the fact that they take down almost two decades of unique, original work… is hard to process,” Pavlov told Ars.



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