YouTube may suspend accounts, temporarily or permanently, from their social networking service. Suspensions of high-profile individuals from YouTube are unusual and when they occur, often attract attention in the media.
List of notable suspensions[edit]
Individual/account | Description | Date of suspension | Reason for suspension |
---|---|---|---|
That Guy with the Glasses | Channel run by comedian and internet personality Doug Walker of Nostalgia Critic. | Jun 18, 2007 | Copyright infringement.[1] After launching a That Guy with the Glasses website in 2008, his content returned to YouTube in 2009 as part of a deal between the site and Blip.tv,[2] the website's primary video host.[3] |
Wael Abbas | Egyptian journalist, blogger, and human rights activist | Sep 2007 | Complaints about graphic content, particularly those depicting tortures.[4] |
Evalion | Canadian internet personality | May 17, 2016 | Hate speech[5] |
Uriminzokkiri | North Korean state-run website | Sep 11, 2017 | Violating YouTube's community guidelines[6] |
Toy Freaks | Single father of two | Nov 22, 2017 | After being highlighted in a Medium article, the top-100 channel, which had over 8 million subscribers at the time,[7] was terminated for violating YouTube's child endangerment policy, which they had recently revised in response to media coverage of supposedly child-friendly videos containing disturbing content on YouTube.[8] |
Logan Paul | Internet personality, actor, director and musician | Feb 2018 | YouTube suspended all advertising on Paul's channels due to his pattern of behavior.[9] The suspension was lifted 18 days later.[10] |
Government of Pakistan | Official account for the Pakistani government | Feb 2, 2018 | Suspended for copyright infringement. Account restored a day later.[11][12] |
FamilyOFive | Family vlog | Jul 18, 2018 | Violating child endangerment guidelines.[13] |
The Alex Jones Channel | Video channel run by American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for his website InfoWars | Aug 6, 2018 | Terminated for violating hate speech and harassment guidelines, following similar bans done by Facebook, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts around this time.[14] His channel was initially just suspended from doing live broadcasts for 90 days, and deleted four of his videos, on July 25 for violating their policies regarding hate speech and graphic content.[15] |
Austin Jones | Musician | Feb 2019 | Terminated after he pleaded guilty to child pornography offenses. They initially refused to.[16][17] |
Resistance News | Channel created by Alex Jones to circumvent his ban | Mar 19, 2019 | Ban evasion.[18] |
Fantastic Adventures | Comedy channel | Mar 20, 2019 | Violating child endangerment guidelines.[19] |
Steven Crowder | Right-wing comedian and commentator | Jun 4, 2019 | Demonetized his channels for having "a pattern of egregious actions that has harmed the broader community" following a dispute between Crowder and Vox producer Carlos Maza over alleged homophobic content. YouTube initially ruled his content was "hurtful" but not in violation of its guidelines.[20] |
ThuleanPerspective | Channel run by Norwegian far-right activist and black metal musician Varg Vikernes | Jun 5, 2019 | Hate speech. Banned hours after YouTube updated its guidelines to ban white supremacist, antisemitic, and misogynistic content.[21][22] |
Soph | Right-wing comedian and commentator | Aug 5, 2019 | Terminated for posting a video that ended with her making death threats and telling followers to cite her in their manifestos, in reference to the mass shootings attributed to 8chan earlier in the year. Her Patreon was also terminated.[23] |
210 pro-Mainland China accounts | Aug 23, 2019 | Suspended for involvement in "coordinated influence operations" to turn public opinion against the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.[24] | |
American Identity Movement | White nationalist group, since defunct | Aug 26, 2019 | Violating hate speech policies.[25] |
James Allsup | American white nationalist | ||
TRS Radio | Video channel for Neo-Nazi website The Right Stuff | ||
VDARE TV | Video channel for far-right website VDARE | ||
Red Ice TV | Channels run by far-right multimedia outlet Red Ice | Oct 17, 2019 | Red Ice TV, which served as the outlet's main channel, was terminated for violating hate speech.[26] Their second channel, which served as a backup, was also terminated.[27] |
Red Ice Media | Oct 23, 2019 | ||
James Charles, FaZe Rug, FaZe Kay, Leah Ashe, and others | Multiple popular YouTubers | Nov 5, 2019 | Accidental termination, possibly due to a bug on YouTube's end. The accounts were shortly reinstated.[28] |
Owen Benjamin | Alt-right comedian | Dec 3, 2019 | Terminated for repeated attempts at circumventing the website's terms of service.[29] |
America First with Nicholas J Fuentes | Channel run by American white nationalist commentator Nick Fuentes | Feb 14, 2020 | Violating hate speech policies.[30] |
TruNews | Video channel for the far-right conspiracy theorist website of the same name | Feb 20, 2020 | Violating hate speech policies.[31] Was temporarily suspended in November 2019 after pastor and site founder Rick Wiles accused Jews of being behind former U.S. President Donald Trump's first impeachment.[32] |
David Icke | Conspiracy theorist, former sports broadcaster and football player | May 2, 2020 | Promoting misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic. YouTube a month prior banned all videos that claimed the virus was caused by 5G following a livestream where Icke did so. His Facebook profile was also deleted at the time of the termination.[33][34] |
The Iconoclast | British far-right activist | Jun 19, 2020 | Violating hate speech policies.[35] Account was suspended in 2019, but restored on appeal.[36] |
Gavin McInnes | Far-right political commentator and founder of the Proud Boys | Jun 22, 2020 | Violating hate speech policies.[37] |
Two accounts linked to American Renaissance | White nationalist and far-right personalities and institutions | Jun 29, 2020 | Violating hate speech policies.[38] |
David Duke | |||
NPI/Radix | |||
Richard Spencer | |||
Stefan Molyneux | |||
Martin Sellner | Austrian far-right activist and leader of Identitäre Bewegung Österreich | Jul 13, 2020 | Violating hate speech policies.[39] His account was suspended in 2019, but restored on appeal.[36] |
Wiley | Rapper | Aug 5, 2020 | Banned after antisemitic rant. Banned from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in July.[40] |
LeafyIsHere | Commentator | Aug 21, 2020 | Violating YouTube's policy on harassment and bullying.[41] |
LensCapProductions / MrAnime / MrBryko | Anime show reviews | Sep 30, 2020 | [42] |
Baked Alaska | Alt-right activist | Oct 13, 2020 | Unknown; believed to be caused by a video of him harassing a convenience store employee for asking him to wear a mask.[43] |
Patriots' Soapbox News Network | QAnon-linked Channel | Oct 15, 2020 | Terminated as part of a site-wide crackdown on channels that promote “conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence.”[44] |
ABS-CBN News and ANC 24/7 | News media | Nov 3, 2020 | Suspension lifted one day later.[45] It is believed that the channels were hacked to upload a Ripple livestream to promote a bitcoin scam.[46] The issue was resolved several hours later. |
One America News Network | Far-right American news outlet | Nov 24, 2020 | Violating YouTube's COVID-19 misinformation policy; suspended for 1 week and demonetized.[47] |
talkRADIO | British talk radio station | Jan 5, 2021 | Violating YouTube's COVID-19 misinformation policy; suspended for a few hours.[48] |
Donald J Trump | President of the United States | Jan 13, 2021 | Violating YouTube's policy on violence following the January 6 United States Capitol attack.[49] |
LifeSiteNews | Video channel for the far-right Catholic news site of the same name | Feb 10, 2021 | Terminated for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.[50] |
|
Channels run by the Burmese military | Mar 5, 2021 | Terminated in response to violent crackdown of protestors that occurred during the 2021 Myanmar protests.[51] |
Steven Crowder | Right-wing comedian and commentator | Mar 30, 2021 | Suspended for a week for disputing the 2020 United States presidential election results in Nevada. His main channel is also permanently removed from the YouTube Partner Program.[52] |
Sebastian Gorka | Former Trump White House senior adviser, radio host | Apr 12, 2021 | Permanent ban for Violating YouTube's presidential election integrity policy [53] |
EDP445 | YouTuber known for rants and reviews | Apr 27, 2021 | Allegations of predatory behavior had been appearing almost a year prior to termination. Just 9 days before his channel was shut down, he was caught attempting to meet a 13-year-old girl with evidence of private messages and the infamous clip of him "buying a cupcake". All videos became private on the 24th before termination 3 days later.[citation needed] |
Ron Johnson | U.S. Senator from Wisconsin | Jun 11, 2021 | Suspended for a week for misinformation via promoting Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin as alternate COVID-19 treatments.[54] |
RWW Blog | Video channel for monitoring site Right Wing Watch | Jun 29, 2021 | Suspended for a day after YouTube accidentally suspended the channel for allegedly violating community guidelines. Right Wing Watch appealed to the ban which was rejected by YouTube. The channel was reinstated hours later after review.[55] |
Marcelito Pomoy | Filipino singer | Jul 29, 2021 | Suspended for violating YouTube's community guidelines following his channel getting hacked to display an Algorand bitcoin livestream.[56] |
Sky News Australia | Australian right-wing news channel | Suspended for a week after uploading videos containing misleading information regarding COVID-19. The suspension also bars the YouTube channel from running its livestreams. The videos that were uploaded were removed from their YouTube channel.[57][58][59] | |
Rand Paul | U.S. Senator from Kentucky | Aug 11, 2021 | Suspended for a week for posting a video claiming that face masks are ineffective, in violating guidelines on COVID-19 misinformation.[60] |
Professor Waffle | Channel run by Jake Davidson, perpetrator of the 2021 Plymouth shooting | Aug 13, 2021 | Removed in the aftermath of the shooting for "inciting violence".[61] |
R. Kelly | Singer | Oct 5, 2021 | R. Kelly's YouTube channel was terminated following his conviction for sex trafficking.[62] |
Jair Bolsonaro | President of Brazil | Oct 26, 2021 | Suspended for a week for violating YouTube's COVID-19 misinformation policy after saying that COVID-19 vaccine causes AIDS.[63] |
Dan Bongino | Talk show host, former United States Secret Service agent | Jan 14, 2022 | Suspended for violating YouTube's COVID-19 misinformation policy after claiming masks are "useless" in preventing the spread of the disease. [64] |
Duma TV | Russian Parliament Channel of State Duma | Apr 8, 2022 | Terminated for violating YouTube's Terms of Service in response to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vyacheslav Volodin, the Duma speaker, said YouTube's move was further evidence of Washington's violation of rights and freedoms.[65] |
Julien Bam | German filmmaker | Apr 18, 2022 | Temporarily suspended after being compromised by spammers. Reinstated shortly after.[66] |
Drachenlord | German streamer | Aug 2022[67] | Permanently suspended for uploading to a new channel while his existing channel was under a temporary upload restriction.[citation needed] |
Uncle Slava, video blogger[68] | Donbas political activist, Omegle/Chatroulette streamer | Aug 24, 2023 | Fitness and criminal justice blogger, later focussing on Ukrainian issues following the 2013 Euromaidan protests including the Nazi relations of the Azov Brigade, far-right and racial problems and potential resolutions to the war in Donbas. Suspended due to his active position in favor of speaking with both Ukrainian and Donbas people using online chat services and translating these discussions.[69] |
Ruby Franke | Family vlogger (8 Passengers), parental advice company (ConneXions) | Aug 31, 2023 | Channels 8 Passengers and ConneXions terminated following Franke and Hildebrandt's arrest for six charges of aggravated child abuse.[70] Franke openly admitted in her content to withholding food and bedding from her children as form of punishment, and online petitions to get child protective services involved had existed since 2020.[71] |
Jodi Hildebrandt | |||
Godtone | LoL Pacific Championship Series pro player, famous Twitch and YouTube streamer in Taiwan. | Apr 12, 2024 | Godtone faced criticism from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan after mocking child pornography on his stream. He issued an apology, but his YouTube channel was suspended shortly thereafter.[72] |
Monsta | Animation studio | Apr 16, 2024 | Monsta YouTube channel was hacked and renamed into Microstrategy, resulted in its account and videos being removed.[73] |
SHAMAN, Grigory Leps, Oleg Gazmanov, Polina Gagarina | Russian singers | Jul 2024 | Terminated on appeal from LRTK and to comply with EU sanctions.[74] |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
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Chang was quoted saying: "It is not such a serious matter... Even I would like to have sex with a minor." Following the outcry, seven companies yesterday said they had terminated their sponsorship deals with Chang.
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- ^ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/07/05/youtube-bans-pro-war-russian-artists-a85615