YouTube accused of wrongfully terminating channels with millions of subs

A handful of popular YouTubers have hit out at the platform after their channels, some of which boasted millions of subscribers, were suddenly removed. The creators have claimed that the terminations were wrongful and unjustified.

For many of the top creators on YouTube, it can be their only source of income, and a sudden and unexpected channel termination can cause serious financial difficulty, not to mention the loss of their creative output.

In late 2019 and early 2020, a number of popular channels have claimed that their YouTube accounts were completely terminated, without notice, despite not having (knowingly) violated any of the rules or terms of service.

YouTube

Users are greeted with this screen when visiting a terminated channel, with no trace of what used to exist.

One of the biggest names to have suffered this fate is XboxAddictionz, who had a whopping 3.6 million subscribers until his channel was suddenly removed in December.

Then, on February 3, another three major channels were removed, all claiming the same tale: that they had received no warning and had, to their knowledge, not broken any rules, and had no obvious route of appeal.

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The three channels, ProPepper, TheMasterOfLuck, and InTrollsive, all had at least 1 million subscribers and were full-time content creators.

ProPepper, who had over 2.3 million subs, was told that he had violated community guidelines but denies this claim. He states: “my channel/videos all fall well within the guidelines advised by your team.”

Master Of Luck, real name William Tyler, was similarly terminated, seemingly on the same day. “Like others, I had no warning, no strikes, and did everything by the rules,” he said, “5 Years and over 1 million subscribers gone.”

Tyler also criticized the platform for allowing YouTuber JayStation to remain on the platform, despite uploading several videos in which he falsely claimed his girlfriend had died.

A third channel, InTrollsive, was also terminated on February 3, and also says he received no warning.

Although his channel growth had stagnated in 2019, he still had over 1 million subscribers, and claims that in his seven years on the platform has “never broken a single YouTube guideline or received a copyright strike.”

It’s unclear if it’s possible to have these channels reinstated if they were in fact wrongly terminated. But, XboxAddictionz, who had his channel removed in December, still does not have it back.

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YouTube made headlines in November 2019 for a rule that stipulates it can terminate accounts if they are “no longer commercially viable,” noted in their “Account Suspension & Termination” section.

More recently, it was revealed for the first time that YouTube generated $15.1 billion in ad revenue in fiscal year 2019.