Did this video get me banned from YouTube… for life?

Rory Moulton

That’s ridiculous Chris. I’ve enjoyed your YouTube videos on several occasions. This is great food for thought as I start to develop my video skills.I find myself using Vimeo more and more…

Mark

That is crazy and no explanation. I pulled over 100 of my videos from youtube a year ago after they didn’t accept me for the partner program and put them all on my own site, best thing I ever did, now I make money from them and youtube does not.

Jennifer

Oh, Chris, how frustrating! I’ve seen TONS of spam on youtube. Grrr. I hope this can get ironed out; you’re so clearly acting in good faith here.

Allison

Wow, Chris! This really stinks. I’m sorry it happened to you. I can’t even imagine what you posted that might have caused this. Do you think your account was hacked into in some way and there were videos posted under your name that you didn’t know about? That’s the only possible explanation I can think of!

Neil Kristianson

Chris, I wouldn’t make my business dependent on something I have no control over. All these community sites, such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc, have no loyalty to the user, as you just found out. It’s their game and their rules. Make your own rules! Unless it’s Google – then just shut up and take it.

Pamela Parisi

As these different sites are so intrinsic to the way business is conducted in our digital world I believe arbitrary bannings such as these have to be addressed legally in some way. Not too many decades ago, before women were part of the professional workplace as they are now, there were establishments in NYC that did not allow them to enter. During the 70’s I believe, this sort of discrimination was challenged in courts. Although I can’t remember the names of these places for sure, I think Keen’s was one of them. This is the catch 22; if you are of the age to remember certain events, the exact details fade in and out. Anyway the establishments argued that they were privately owned, so therefore allowed to “ban” anyone they wanted. If my memory serves me, which frankly it doesn’t consistantly, the counter argument was that since business was routinely conducted in these sort of places, not allowing women impeded their ability to advance. I think this is the same sort of thing that is happening here. If these sites are going to make a gazillion dollars because the provide a forum which becomes intrinsic to the way we do business, they should not just be able to ban someone without providing a specific reason and having to back it up. Just my 2 cents.

If anyone has a better recollection of the ancient events I spoke about please enlighten. As a side note, I remember the day when help wanted ads were categorized according to gender – Help Wanted Women, etc- by crackie.

Paul Copeland

Oh wow.

Lets just hope it was a accident and everything gets fixed.

chris2x

The account hacked theory has occurred to me as well, just because I am so stumped. But , of course, it still does not explain why their process does not seem to involved any notification or warning.

Jack

I wouldn’t be surprised in Youtube didn’t like the topless part, even if nothing was really visible… at all.

But that’s the only thing I can think of, and I doubt that should cause any issues. Youtube is pretty crazy :\

John

I am thinking your account got hacked and that is why you got banned. If it is any condolence, I got 4 of my videos silenced with no warning. I only found out through a subscriber. I emailed youtube and told them the use of the songs we covered under either the fair use or creative commons, but they refused to reinstate the videos. I don’t really care that much though, because youtube is not the only place you can post your videos.

Sherry Ott

Sorry to hear about your frustration. It was frustrating for me to simply read about it! I think the hardest part is that you can’t talk to anyone. I find it interesting that some of the biggest sites out there – YouTube and Facebook have little to no support and you’ll never be able to actually have a conversation with a human being.

I hope you can bring some visibility to the craziness of this!

chris2x

Thanks all for the support. @Rafe Needleman from CBS Interactive / CNet has a new obudsman role over there and he has some inquiries into Google that should help.

Jesse

I read about it before. Apparently someone can flag all the videos as inappropriate and youtube just takes them down without viewing them. I don’t know if this is true. The bad part is that they won’t tell why. Hope you’ll find out what happened.

Anil

One of the things I can’t stand about Google (who I rely heavily on and like their services for the most part) is how difficult it is to get in touch with anyone there. Finding an email is nearly impossible. Reading this post and story is frustrating to hear. I hope they do give you some explanation.

Lifecruiser Travel Blog

Crap! What disturbs me the most with this (and other similar things I’ve heard of) is:

1) No warning first.

2) No explanation!

That sux!!! Even though it’s a free service, as many of the others mentioned in the comments, this behavior is NOT acceptable.

chris2x

I still don’t know if it was a video that was flagged or what. It is possible as some have suggested the account was hacked. That’s probably the biggest frustration.

Some have suggested Videom. The problem is not where to host video, the problem is being banned from the #2 search engine in the world which is YouTube.

James Schipper

Google is well-known for banning accounts and never giving an explanation of any kind. With all the junk that gets posted on YouTube, I can’t imagine someone flagged that video as somehow inappropriate, so I’m leaning more towards the hacked account theory.

YouTube is the biggest, but not the only game in town. But as was mentioned, this is the problem with the cloud in general. Your work is not in your control. Places close up, have fires, or have horrid policies like this one and can delete your entire business.

Since Google will never give you any clarification, I hope you saved your work and have or are able to host it elsewhere with corrected links without too much trouble.

Crissy

Chris this seems crazy, especially since they wont even tell you why. I just took 5 minutes to write a letter to youtube on your behalf. It’s in the envelope waiting to go to the mailbox. Good Luck!

Donna Hull

If an internet company, such as YouTube, can take such draconian measures as to ban someone, they need to provide a way to discuss the issue. I hope you’re able to resolve this, Chris.

Lisa at The World is Calling

Argh! Totally frustrating. I think I’d pay for a superior level of Twitter and YouTube that had adequate customer service.

Marie P.

I seem to recall Google doing this to a number of music bloggers a few weeks ago – just pulled the blug with no heads up. Brutal!

Fingers crossed this gets resolved. What a pain in the rear.

Marie

Fida

The real frustrating part is that there is no communication. My business gmail account disappeared about 3 weeks back – I used every venue possible to contact them – to no avail.

I know from my forum that google closes adsense accounts without any explanation and you won’t have a chance on getting reinstalled with an other account, ever again – like you at youtube.

It’s especially frustrating because one doesn’t know if the account got hacked – in that case, other things may be at stake as well. I can’t imagine that they took your account off because of offensive content. Like already mentioned, there’s so much junk floating around – why would they choose you? All we can do is guess – and that is no way of conducting business.

And the ‘free account’ is no excuse either to treat us this way. I gladly would pay a fee if it means we can have a proper business relationship with a two-way communication.

I just started with video production – as frustrating as it will be not being able to use YouTube because of the traffic – I won’t.

The whole experience taught me not to rely on google. I know there is almost no way around them in the digital world, but when and wherever possible I will use other venues.

chris2x

I think Lisa has figured out the Google master plan. Make support so bad people offer to pay to get better support 😉

Jennifer @ Approach Guides

Sorry to hear this news. I had been following your account for a while and was hoping that someone at Google would hear your pleas and reinstate it. I hope that someone is able to help you out — you certainly have your audience following this very carefully!

Trisha Miller

It’s really scary how powerful both Google and YouTube have become, and how little recourse we have when we disagree with their decisions. It’s also appalling that they can get away with things like this, and there are no laws or other protection for us. I’m not sure I want the government involved, but other businesses have to abide by consumer protection laws, why not Google?

This has been excruciating for those of us who love your videos to see happen, but I’m glad you’re sharing your experience so that the rest of us can learn this painful lesson as well – don’t trust YouTube, period. Regardless how benign they may seem to most of us, they are NOT our friend.

soultravelers3

Wow! Shocking! I’m so glad you got it fixed. I’ve heard a lot of this type of thing happening with Facebook, Twitter , GMail etc. Ugh. BUT if you are innocent, seems like it usually get solved, but still.

We’re Partners with Youtube & have had several viral travel videos there, so LOVE Youtube and it’s benefits. Despite it’s negatives, it’s still the best game in town.

“the problem is being banned from the #2 search engine in the world which is YouTube.” EXACTLY! One of the MANY benefits that can ONLY be found on Youtube.

So glad this is behind you now. So sorry it happened!

jessiev

ridiculous. i am so sorry. UGH!!

Pauline

Hi Chris,

I _just_ discovered your website after reading the article on CNET regarding your blog issues with YouTube.

I can’t wait to delve into the content!

Please keep on keeping on with your site.

Regards from Carolina,

Pauline

chris2x

Welcome to the site Pauline!

Peter

Chris,

When you said that the issue had been resolved, I assumed that your channel would return to my list of subscriptions, but that didn’t happen. It seems all of your old YouTube subscribers have to re-subscribe.

Peter in Chicago

chris2x

Ugh

Rio Guzman

Good luck Chris! Thanks for warning us all!

JD

WOW!!!

Looks like those beaches must have partly naked people around that’s must be the cause of the problem.

Hope you got my message

Charlotte

Sorry about that, Chris! Sounds harsh 🙁 Sometimes Youtube is perplexing and unfairly so too. I just got my adsense account banned for absolutely no reason I am aware of. I got an “invalid clicks” notice, when I neither purchased views nor clicked my own ads. I tried to appeal but it was no use. Meanwhile, some people get away with real fraud…
Anyways, thanks for sharing your article.