YouTube Took Down My Channel… Then This Happened

Key Takeaways

So, I wanted to do a quick video um just explaining to you all what's happened to me the last few days and why some of you may have noticed that my YouTube channel disappeared. Now, Thursday morning, I got into work as usual. I turned on my computer and I start so I did some looked at my work emails, see what's happening, and I thought to myself, well, I'll just quickly check my phone to see um my YouTube channel if I've got any new subscribers or likes or comments overnight. So, I opened up the um YouTube studio and basically they said, "This channel no longer exists." And I was like, "Ah, right. Okay. What's this all about? There must be a bug." So, I again, you know, I refreshed it. Still nothing. So, I thought I'll just check my emails to see what's going on. And then I saw an email from YouTube basically explaining saying that this channel has been terminated due to violations under the uh what was it scam um was the other thing I I can't remember what it was now but it was something to do with scam spam and impersonations or something like that. Anyway, so I was like absolutely horrified. I was thinking what the hell is I've done absolutely nothing wrong. How is how has this happened? Um and um so I I panicked, you know, because it had a button on there saying you can appeal here, you know, if you think we've made the wrong decision. So obviously I I clicked on that button and started writing a panicking message saying you've made a massive mistake. I've I've done nothing wrong, you know, this please please reinstate my channel immediately, you know. Uh so and then I sent it and I then I I sort of immediately regretted it because I had not done any research into it. And I was thinking to myself, probably I probably should have read up on this a bit more, thinking maybe I needed to word that better. But I just I panicked. I imagine that's what a lot of people do. So I panicked. Uh sent the sent the um the appeal and then it got to lunchtime and obviously I hadn't heard anything. So I started uh watching clips on uh on videos of of you know channels being terminated. And you know this h happens to a lot of people which I didn't realize. And then it got to a point where I saw uh you I was on a forum a lot few forums and they said oh you know once you your channel's terminated you can't you can't ever have a YouTube channel ever again. And then so I reread the original email and it said that at the bottom and I was just like I was in absolute panic mode thinking what the hell is going on here cuz you know this is something I love doing. I get a lot of fulfillment out of this and it helps me, you know, keeps me focused in the evenings. Um, and it gives me a lot of pleasure. So, I was in absolute panic stations anyway. So, then it got to the end of lunch break and I got a reply for my email for my appeal and they denied the appeal saying, "No, we stand by our um, we stand by our original decision. You know, it's your channel's terminated. You no longer have a channel on YouTube." And I was an absolute, you know, just I was completely gutted. I just thought to myself, what the hell am I going to do now? This is just this is just ridiculous. I' not I don't know what I've done wrong. So I I kept thinking to myself all day was like, what have I done, you know, in my videos, what what have I done that could possibly have violated YouTube's terms and conditions and community guidelines. And I just I couldn't think of anything. I was like, I'm literally my channel is about me documenting my journey to escaping the 9 to5 and and explaining explaining to people what I have done, what's worked and what hasn't worked for me. And I'm thinking, how is that possibly violating anything? I just I couldn't think. Anyway, so on the way back from work that day, I think this is on Thursday night, I watched a video of a guy basically the same thing happens. Um, appeal denied and he said that he contacted I think it was team YouTube on X and because I've got I've got an X account, I thought, right, okay, I I'll do that as soon as I get home. I'll contact them and yeah, and and see what they say. And so I wrote a message on it and said, please look into this. you know, I've I've not done anything wrong. You know, this is this is I'm absolutely distraught. And they, to be fair, the guys are really good. They came back very quickly. They came back within, I think, an hour. And then they said, "Let uh let us look into this. Um, leave it with us. Might take a few days." So, I was like, "Right, okay." you know, I was then I was just like, I'm not holding out much hope because, you know, the whole sort of like if you if you um fail your appeal, then there's a very slim chance you get your YouTube channel back. So, I was just I was so I started planning around not having a YouTube channel. started thinking, right, I've got to start doing use doing a lot more content on Tik Tok X um and Facebook, which I don't particularly like like using Facebook to be honest. But so I started trying to navigate everything, you know, the the other the other channels and thinking how am I going to u do my content on there because YouTube's the one the place that I really enjoyed doing the content, you know, that that's the that's that's the one I really wanted. So anyway, it got to I think it was Friday evening and they said they're still looking into it. Hopefully they'll they'll let us know the next next day or two. You know, again, I was wasn't holding up much hope. But it got to Saturday morning. I woke up and I saw a message on my ex account saying, "We've made a mistake. We're reinstating your channel within it should be ready in the next 24 hours. Um, sorry for the inconvenience." And I was just like absolutely ecstatic. I was like that is I was like get in there that's that's that is the result we wanted. So I came running downstairs to to speak to my wife and my my son and said I'm back up and running. Obviously they were just ecstatic. Obviously not. They are brilliant. So yeah um absolutely delighted honestly guys. So if you if you're going through this if I can say anything if you're going through this cuz it happens a lot. Does happen a lot. If you if you think you've done nothing wrong then and you fail your appeal then contact the guys on on you on X because they were brilliant. They were really really helpful. They sorted my issue out very quickly. But if you if you if you have done something wrong and you know you've done something wrong then then it's game over. It's it's not going to happen. So, the one thing I've learned from this video, sorry, this from this incident is that you really got to be on it with with the terms and services and and the community guidelines, okay? Because if if you get struck off, then it is game over. So, but yeah, be careful out there. Hope you got some value from it. And there is always hope. So, don't give up. You know, fight your case. If you're innocent, I'm sure you know you you're going to get yourself cleared and get your channel back. But um but yeah, hope you got some value from this video and I shall see you on my next