Really surprising takedown issue :(

[Chimp]

I was checking my recent emails 2 days ago and to my horror I found an email containing "Your video has been removed from Youtube" So my first thought was for what for? I uploaded this video 3-4 years ago, had something like 4M views, performed well on my dashboard, no misleading, thumbnail accurate imagery of the game, description was slightly different back then but relevant to the game, title accurate, no clickbait, tags were fine, gameplay was also not malicious, overly violent, sexual and what not, no copyrighted music, and I have never even once advertised my videos on big community websites . I have always worked under the assumption that if you would like to see my content I would prefer users to want to search for the content under specific keywords used, which tends to be game related, specifically for the said game, no clickbait tags/description etc.

As you may know, our Community guidelines describe which content we allow and what we don’t allow on YouTube. Your video (title) was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.

Impact on your account
Please note that this removal has not resulted in a community guideline strike or penalty on your account.

We encourage you to review all videos in your account to make sure that they are in line with our community guidelines as additional violations could result in strikes on your account, or even lead to account termination.

Yours sincerely,
- The YouTube Team

So anyway I was digging further and found that I am unable to appeal/review the video removal . Channel status and features says 0 copyright strikes, 0 community guideline strikes (Where is my appeal form? and how can I review the video? I could do with seeing the video in 1080P, the description and all the other things just to see if I made any silly errors in really old video postings. I don't believe I did, but it would be nice to double check the content to try and find legitimate reasons why the said video would be removed. If I was able to find faults I would agree with the removal, but as things stand I believe this removal was done in error. Gameplay related the video was completely fine. As far as I'm aware the rest of the video was also fine. I also believe this to be nostalgic old time gameplay <3, which many users commented on when posting comments.

I also checked the video manager most viewed and all the video says is "Video removed: Inappropriate content" if I click on the external link it tells me to read the community guidelines, fair enough all looks fine from where I stand, tells me to check my channel settings to find out more about my video violation (as above 0 strikes/flags no option to appeal/review) then it goes on to say if you believe that your video was removed in error, you can appeal the decision at link. Alright, great, definitely need to appeal this. So how do I appeal lol? The screenshots, information of the process are not relevant to me as there is no way for me to appeal through the normal channels.

At this point I got in touch with my Youtube Network who asked if I was able to supply a video copy. Unfortunately this video was posted 3-4 years ago so the raw original footage would have been deleted . If Youtube as they should let me review the video on my account (7 day notice or whatever) I could have showed them the video in 1080P. Instead I had to go into my Partner dashboard, click on the video, record it at 360P as I couldn't view the video on Youtube and send them the file... Awkward right? They also fail to see why the video was removed. So they asked me to try and get in touch with Youtube directly. So off I went to my Youtube channel, help tab located at the bottom of the page, contact us email, policy and community guidelines filled in the information name, address, URL, video of URL removed, 1000 word explanation. Sent!

What happened after this?

Thanks for writing in.

The YouTube Community flagged one or more of your videos as inappropriate. Flagged content is not automatically taken down by the flagging system. After review, the YouTube team has found that one or more of your videos violate our Community Guidelines. As a result, we have removed the content.

Accounts that have multiple or severe violations of our Community Guidelines may be suspended.

Please take some time to learn about YouTube's Community Guideline's and how they are enforced.

If you think a Community Guidelines strike was applied to your account in error, you can appeal it.

Thanks,

Wait, I was a little bit more direct in my message, also raised my concerns in the original message about not being able to appeal and stuff :/. Therefore this response seems to me to be automated/copy paste job..I replied with proof of being unable to do anything... If I could appeal it would have been the first thing I did, as I do not believe my video to be in violation of any rules . It's just simple gameplay :|. You cannot always control what happens in online multiplayer games but the upload in question does not have anything in it to justify the removal of the video and leave me with no counter options .

I know this is a community forum but does anyone know what next step I could take? I genuinely believe the video taken down was taken down wrongly .

Review the video + appeal, specific clarification (as I'm not under any category here) or for the video to be reinstated through error is what I want to be able to do. The thing is I would prefer the video to be up and demonetised than having it removed completely as well. If I had received an email saying "This video would be demonetised" I would still challenge it as I don't believe I'm in the wrong here but those extra viewers per month also help my channel a little to entice a few extra subscribers to watch newer content.

 

[Idec Sdawkminn]

Contacting YouTube like you are doing is really the only thing you can do. That sucks, though.

 

[Chimp]

Contacting YouTube like you are doing is really the only thing you can do. That sucks, though.

Issue here is nobody responds . That @ the above seems to be an automated copy paste service :/. "If you would like to appeal do this, this, this" I do not have such options as explained in every post I sent to them, put someone real on the case and let them judge or at least give me the ability to appeal .

I have no idea what else to do :/. Read the help guides no use to me, contacted Youtube Network who tell me to contact Youtube, Youtube help/contact email located at the bottom for partners seems to be a lazy copy/paste instead of dealing with the issue at hand. I tried responding to the email after the copy/paste above asking for clarification, sent screenshots and no response whatsoever :|. I thought Steam was bad with customer support but Youtube lmao... Didn't realise how tough it would be to raise a concern and getting a proper response.

I need someone real on the job, if they did I guarantee the video would be reinstated as it isn't offensive, it isn't graphic, it isn't vulgar, it isn't sexual, it isn't racist, it isn't copyrighted, it isn't misleading It really doesn't make any sense. There are billions of videos on Youtube that cut a fine line with community guidelines and others that cross those lines, mine certainly do not.

 

[Idec Sdawkminn]

Yeah, I understand all that. I have a support ticket with them as well. One of them never got a response. I'm hoping they respond to the one I have right now. The only thing I can suggest is to keep replying and doing what you are doing. Maybe eventually it will get escalated.

 

[Highfalutin' Low Carb]

Hope you get this worked out. (Note to self: ALWAYS keep a backup of the final uploaded file!!)

 

[Starfire]

There is a direct e-mail for copyright problems at copyright@youtube.com
You could send them a line - I can tell you that it is read by a real human being, and you generally
get a response within 3-4 business days.
You can explain that as far as you know there are no copyright issues, and if it is something else,
you are not being informed of what it is nor any intelligent way to appeal it. If not a copyright problem
they'll then copy/paste the blurb that it's not their department, but maybe you could get someone nice
there to at least give more detail on why.
At the very least, if they just give the blurb, you'll know the reason isn't one of copyright.

 

[Chimp]

Seems the video has been reinstated onto Youtube in the past 24 hours lol. No updates, no explanation issued and certainly a one way conversation as none of them bothered to respond . I'm glad the video is back on Youtube but the least they could do is apologise and tell me what caused the video to be taken down in the first place. I wasn't even made aware that the video had been reinstated, a friend of mine had to link me the video and say welcome back <3 for me to realise.