YouTube says channel removals & bans were a mistake

YouTube experienced a bizarre technical glitch on October 3 which resulted in it removing channels and banning accounts by mistake. Interestingly, the incident took place the same day the company announced some major changes coming to YouTube Shorts.

YouTube acknowledges that channel removal and account ban was a mistake

Users around the globe reported that YouTube flagged their channel and account for “spam, deceptive practices, and scams policy.” To our surprise, users who never uploaded videos on YouTube have also lost access to their accounts due to this mistake.

Since users have lost access to their account, they haven’t been able to watch YouTube videos or listen to YouTube Music. What’s worse is that some YouTube Premium subscribers have also lost access to their saved playlists and other content.

YouTube was quick enough to address this mistake after the issue spread like wildfire on social media. In a support thread post, YouTube acknowledged that it is aware of the erroneous account ban and channel deletion. The company further said that it is working continuously to fix it.

The post reads “Our teams are continuing to work on reinstating all removed channels and your access to paid subscriptions (YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music). We are very sorry for this error on our part and we’ll follow up here when it’s done.”

Users can appeal to get their removed channel and banned account back

YouTube has apparently sent emails to users to communicate the account ban or channel removal. Further, the company mentioned that those affected can appeal to get back account access and reinstate their removed channels.

Fortunately, the appeal process is reportedly helping users as many users have got their own banned YouTube channels back. However, some are still complaining that they are not able to see their playlists. YouTube has also addressed this situation in the same post.

According to the post, if you just got your removed channel back, you might find some content and playlists missing. YouTube says it’s a normal delay and you don’t have to worry. Moreover, the company further mentions that everything will get back in place after a while.