After 15 years of creating and uploading videos on my Conscious Living Solutions YouTube channel, I was recently CANCELLED! I had heard about this happening to quite a few people who suddenly had their entire channels deleted with no warning or explanation, but I assumed they must have done SOMETHING wrong for such harsh measures to be taken against them.
Then it happened to me. The other day, I received an email from YouTube that simply said "Hi Lise, we have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our spam, deceptive practices and scams policy. Because of this, we have removed your channel from YouTube. We know this is probably very upsetting news, but it's our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all." I did a quick search on the net and discovered that MANY people had received this same generic "channel cancellation email" from YouTube.
My first reaction was "This is some kind of mistake. I have a mindfulness / meditation channel. Everything is a clean as can be with no spam, deceptive practices or scams!" I have NEVER received any warnings or strikes from YouTube in the past. So I wrote to YouTube to appeal their decision. Within about one minute of sending my appeal, I received what appeared to be an instant, automated response that basically said "Your appeal was rejected." I tried again and sent another one. Same thing happened. I then reached out to YouTube via a different contact form. No response. A few days later, I wrote to customer support, asking "Can you please tell me exactly WHAT violation I am being accused of that got my channel cancelled?" The first response I received was "Content that contains spam, scams, or other deceptive practices are not allowed on YouTube." I immediately wrote back and asked "Can you please tell me the SPECIFIC violation that got my channel cancelled, I have not done any of these things and would sincerely like to understand what happened?" Their final response, after 7 days of waiting, was: "Your channel violates our guidelines for spam, deceptive practices and scams policies." Wow. That's helpful.
Unbelievable. If my channel did indeed violate their guidelines, why is YouTube unable or unwilling to identify and communicate to me the SPECIFIC VIOLATION that got me cancelled? Why did I never receive a warning, or a single strike? Furthermore, YouTube owes me money for running ads on my videos. I will likely never receive that money now.
I can tell you THIS from my 15 years on YouTube: it's not a fair game. Some channels get pushed, while others struggle to get even a single view. It's more than just the algorithm. I've experimented with different channels and I can tell you that two channels with the exact same videos will get radically different results. The censorship happening on YouTube is no secret, and yes, blacklisting happens. I'll probably never know the truth of what happened to my channel, but I leave you with this: don't be naïve about your privacy online, keep your eyes wide open, and don't assume that Big Tech is driven by integrous principles. It's time to wake up and shine our light like our life depends on it...because it does!
Peace,
Lise Villeneuve