7 ms·

Ask HN: Help? My YouTube channel was suspended

61 points by abe-101 4y ago

This morning I woke up to find my channel suspended. My channel has one video, a walk through how to use a command-line tool I built in python. I have no idea why this would trigger a suspension. Has this ever happened to you? Is a link to pypi.org considered a "Links to websites or apps that install malware" that violates YouTube's external links policy

EddieDante 4y ago
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  Ah yes, the ol' "swap one centralised point of failure for another one".
  - itake 4y ago
    Can you elaborate? personal websites are as decentralized of a platform as you can get.
    - hammyhavoc 4y ago
      They aren't decentralised in a way that mitigates a single point of failure, i.e. a third-party interfering. PeerTube and Matrix.org are good examples to compare and contrast against a traditional website hosted either in a datacenter, or in your own home.
      - Joker_vD 4y ago
        Now all is left is to get rid of ISPs with their government-mandated DPIs and we'll live in cyber-Utopia!
        hammyhavoc 4y ago
        If you actually dig into Matrix.org, you'll see that the goal is for it to work offline, peer-to-peer, ideal for use in areas of natural disaster, and cities that become battlefields. https://matrix.org/blog/2020/06/02/introducing-p-2-p-matrix https://matrix.org/blog/2020/06/02/introducing-p-2-p-matrix https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/06/introducing-the-pinecone-overlay-network https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/06/introducing-the-pinecone-...
        netmonk 4y ago
        P2p over IP is useless and failing to protect against DPI. Also natural disaster or war tend to impact infrastructure and cutting communication. Have a look at meshtastic real p2p chat out of band (Lora based) and ciphered. Cheap devices with the right firmware and you can setup fairly an infrastructure and chat p2p If you don’t own infrastructure you are in the hand of the owner.
butz 4y ago
Consider moving your video to odysee.com , especially if you have no plans to make video creation a source of income.
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  Political extremism propped up by crypto crud. PeerTube every time.
  - freedomben 4y ago
    PeerTube is really fantastic. If you're not concerned about monetization and discovery, PeerTube is a great choice.
    - CharlesW 4y ago
      > If you're not concerned about monetization and discovery… "If you don't want your video to be found…"
      - freedomben 4y ago
        If you rely on Youtube for those things, yes. I was more thinking of a use case I often see where someone has a blog or a prominent Twitter account or something, and just wants to be able to link to their video. The blog itself may be monetized with membership or ads or something, but they don't need Youtube itself to be monetizing it. A case study example is Jupiter Broadcasting. They run their own instance of Peer Tube. They monetize their content through premium members and ads that they sell and manage themselves, and most of their audience listens to audio through RSS feed, but they want to make video available for the few who want it. They just need a place where they aren't constantly getting dings for things. They don't care that much about monetization or discovery.
- freedomben 4y ago
  I haven't seen odyssey before but it looks worth checking out. A friend of mine got nailed for a bogus copyright claim, but she was way too small to get Youtube's attention. She uses Rumble now, and is optimistic about monetization as Rumble seems to be very welcoming and helpful to creators, including path to monetization. There's a lot of right wing stuff on there, but it's not just a cesspool dumping ground for stuff that's too heterodox for youtube (although there certainly is some of that there if you look for it). There's quite a bit of legitimately interesting content on there that has nothing to do with politics (I mostly watch tech stuff and music stuff), most of which (I imagine) could be on Youtube without issue, but as a creator you don't have to live in fear so many people publish there instead. You don't get near the reach of youtube, but I've been considering maintaining a mirror there of my youtube channel just in case I get the ire of the robot someday for something. I try to be very careful of copyright, but it's walking on egg shells. Eventually you'll break one even though you're trying not to.
alexb_ 4y ago
Try contacting YouTube, or having the python script be hosted somewhere else. Also, what is up with people here completely ignoring the question so they can say something different?
- namelessoracle 4y ago
  >>>> try contacting YouTube I literally laughed at this. How is he supposed to talk to a real person at Youtube? Professional Youtube people who get millions of views have to rant and rave and get something trending on Twitter before a human will look at their case.
  - sebazzz 4y ago
    And even if you do talk to a real person, it still might not get something done. GamersNexus got one of their videos age-restricted, mailed with people high up in the YouTube Partner Program tree, and was not able to get the video fixed until some viewers who work at Google were aware of it and did manual internal escalation [0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGUV1bsjtQ&t=67s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGUV1bsjtQ&t=67s
- CoastalCoder 4y ago
  > Also, what is up with people here completely ignoring the question so they can say something different? Here's my guess: It's somewhat common knowledge that it's almost impossible to get real human intervention when YouTube's or Google's systems sanction someone. So people are moving on to the next question, "Okay, so what can I do in this situation?"
- abe-101 4y ago
  YouTube was "kind" enough to notify me in email and give me the option to appeal. To which I did. How would hosting the python script elsewhere help?
amelius 4y ago
What does the command-line tool do? It could be the reason.
- abe-101 4y ago
  It converts YouTube videos into Anchor FM podcasts
saalweachter 4y ago
Can you repost the pypi.org link here?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- abe-101 4y ago
  https://pypi.org/project/tube-cast/ https://pypi.org/project/tube-cast/ I realized now that I did not include any links to the project Here's the github link: https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast
ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
Unless you have a decent Twitter following you're out of luck. Backup anything important in any connected Google accounts.
Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago
Have your considered just surrendering to the algorithmic overlords and accept that they decide your fate and you don't have, and never will have, agency or control within their realm? Edit: I accept the downvotes on this, but its honestly how I feel most times when dealing with tech companies, ISPs, my bank, and so on. They win by the sheer brute force of their apathy.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
TruthWillHurt 4y ago
slingnow 4y ago
Why is this on the front page of HN? Do we really want to encourage these sorts of glorified customer service requests? Every time someone is confused by Google's opaque moderation practices, vote it to the top? This one isn't even interesting.
- CoastalCoder 4y ago
  > Why is this on the front page of HN? HN's front page is (partially?) governed by upvotes on the submissions. > This one isn't even interesting. Apparently some users disagree.
corobo 4y ago
Video for people who cba digging: https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast#demo https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast#demo My guess would be because you're giving people a way to rip off YouTube content but more specifically because you do so in the video at approx 2:05. They're not massive fans of youtube-dl either which wont help, looks like you're using that to rip the vids under the hood. Best guess, no actual clue.
- tootie 4y ago
  Yikes, this takes YT videos and rehosts the audio on Anchor. I'm sure OP thought this was a nifty productivity tool, but this is also an easy way to automate content theft. I'm in the podcast biz and it's a big problem that really anyone can just download and rehost content with their own ads layered on and there's no easy way to stop them.
  - abe-101 4y ago
    You have a valid point. It can see how this tool can be used with malicious intent. I built it for a local learning organization that streams their lectures on YouTube. They approached me to help them get their content over to podcast. The tool did the job and eliminated many hours of tedious manual work
  - joshstrange 4y ago
    > I'm in the podcast biz and it's a big problem that really anyone can just download and rehost content with their own ads layered on and there's no easy way to stop them. How often does this happen in practice and how does it happen? It's not like I google for a podcast each time I want to listen to the new episode and might get sucked into a fake search results with different ads. I add a feed to my podcast app and never touch it again (and I'm adding from a curated podcast catalogue, read: official podcasts only). Maybe if you were trolling for an ad-free feed you might find something but I've never seen what you are describing in the wild.
    - tootie 4y ago
      Honestly, no idea. There's no easy way to police it. We've only ever caught one perp and it was just from someone tweeting at us about it. Yes, platforms like Apple and Spotify will generally try to keep copycats out of their catalogs, but since RSS feeds can come from anywhere, it's pretty easy to setup a fake feed and findable in Google.
rvz 4y ago
I think this is like the 20th time I have said that YouTube doesn't care about the small creators and only appeals to the channels and accounts used by corporations, media giants and some of the largest creators on the platform. As for smaller creators, good luck getting YouTube to change its ways. They will never change and it will only get much worse.
abe-101 4y ago
Update: upon submitting an appeal to YouTube I got a response within 24 hours saying "We have re-reviewed your account and have concluded that it is not in violation of our Terms of Service. Therefore, we have unsuspended your account." So now you can watch the video :) https://youtu.be/HBk-0wRGqHY https://youtu.be/HBk-0wRGqHY Thank you all for the tips

61 points by abe-101 4y ago

EddieDante 4y ago

hammyhavoc 4y ago
Ah yes, the ol' "swap one centralised point of failure for another one".
- itake 4y ago
  Can you elaborate? personal websites are as decentralized of a platform as you can get.
  - hammyhavoc 4y ago
    They aren't decentralised in a way that mitigates a single point of failure, i.e. a third-party interfering. PeerTube and Matrix.org are good examples to compare and contrast against a traditional website hosted either in a datacenter, or in your own home.
    - Joker_vD 4y ago
      Now all is left is to get rid of ISPs with their government-mandated DPIs and we'll live in cyber-Utopia!
      - hammyhavoc 4y ago
        If you actually dig into Matrix.org, you'll see that the goal is for it to work offline, peer-to-peer, ideal for use in areas of natural disaster, and cities that become battlefields. https://matrix.org/blog/2020/06/02/introducing-p-2-p-matrix https://matrix.org/blog/2020/06/02/introducing-p-2-p-matrix https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/06/introducing-the-pinecone-overlay-network https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/06/introducing-the-pinecone-...
        netmonk 4y ago
        P2p over IP is useless and failing to protect against DPI. Also natural disaster or war tend to impact infrastructure and cutting communication. Have a look at meshtastic real p2p chat out of band (Lora based) and ciphered. Cheap devices with the right firmware and you can setup fairly an infrastructure and chat p2p If you don’t own infrastructure you are in the hand of the owner.

butz 4y ago

Consider moving your video to odysee.com , especially if you have no plans to make video creation a source of income.

hammyhavoc 4y ago
Political extremism propped up by crypto crud. PeerTube every time.
- freedomben 4y ago
  PeerTube is really fantastic. If you're not concerned about monetization and discovery, PeerTube is a great choice.
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    > If you're not concerned about monetization and discovery… "If you don't want your video to be found…"
    - freedomben 4y ago
      If you rely on Youtube for those things, yes. I was more thinking of a use case I often see where someone has a blog or a prominent Twitter account or something, and just wants to be able to link to their video. The blog itself may be monetized with membership or ads or something, but they don't need Youtube itself to be monetizing it. A case study example is Jupiter Broadcasting. They run their own instance of Peer Tube. They monetize their content through premium members and ads that they sell and manage themselves, and most of their audience listens to audio through RSS feed, but they want to make video available for the few who want it. They just need a place where they aren't constantly getting dings for things. They don't care that much about monetization or discovery.
freedomben 4y ago
I haven't seen odyssey before but it looks worth checking out. A friend of mine got nailed for a bogus copyright claim, but she was way too small to get Youtube's attention. She uses Rumble now, and is optimistic about monetization as Rumble seems to be very welcoming and helpful to creators, including path to monetization. There's a lot of right wing stuff on there, but it's not just a cesspool dumping ground for stuff that's too heterodox for youtube (although there certainly is some of that there if you look for it). There's quite a bit of legitimately interesting content on there that has nothing to do with politics (I mostly watch tech stuff and music stuff), most of which (I imagine) could be on Youtube without issue, but as a creator you don't have to live in fear so many people publish there instead. You don't get near the reach of youtube, but I've been considering maintaining a mirror there of my youtube channel just in case I get the ire of the robot someday for something. I try to be very careful of copyright, but it's walking on egg shells. Eventually you'll break one even though you're trying not to.

alexb_ 4y ago

Try contacting YouTube, or having the python script be hosted somewhere else. Also, what is up with people here completely ignoring the question so they can say something different?

namelessoracle 4y ago
>>>> try contacting YouTube I literally laughed at this. How is he supposed to talk to a real person at Youtube? Professional Youtube people who get millions of views have to rant and rave and get something trending on Twitter before a human will look at their case.
- sebazzz 4y ago
  And even if you do talk to a real person, it still might not get something done. GamersNexus got one of their videos age-restricted, mailed with people high up in the YouTube Partner Program tree, and was not able to get the video fixed until some viewers who work at Google were aware of it and did manual internal escalation [0] [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGUV1bsjtQ&t=67s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGUV1bsjtQ&t=67s
CoastalCoder 4y ago
> Also, what is up with people here completely ignoring the question so they can say something different? Here's my guess: It's somewhat common knowledge that it's almost impossible to get real human intervention when YouTube's or Google's systems sanction someone. So people are moving on to the next question, "Okay, so what can I do in this situation?"
abe-101 4y ago
YouTube was "kind" enough to notify me in email and give me the option to appeal. To which I did. How would hosting the python script elsewhere help?

amelius 4y ago

What does the command-line tool do? It could be the reason.

abe-101 4y ago
It converts YouTube videos into Anchor FM podcasts

saalweachter 4y ago

Can you repost the pypi.org link here?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
abe-101 4y ago
https://pypi.org/project/tube-cast/ https://pypi.org/project/tube-cast/ I realized now that I did not include any links to the project Here's the github link: https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast

ThrowawayTestr 4y ago

Unless you have a decent Twitter following you're out of luck. Backup anything important in any connected Google accounts.

Eddy_Viscosity2 4y ago

Have your considered just surrendering to the algorithmic overlords and accept that they decide your fate and you don't have, and never will have, agency or control within their realm? Edit: I accept the downvotes on this, but its honestly how I feel most times when dealing with tech companies, ISPs, my bank, and so on. They win by the sheer brute force of their apathy.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

TruthWillHurt 4y ago

slingnow 4y ago

Why is this on the front page of HN? Do we really want to encourage these sorts of glorified customer service requests? Every time someone is confused by Google's opaque moderation practices, vote it to the top? This one isn't even interesting.

CoastalCoder 4y ago
> Why is this on the front page of HN? HN's front page is (partially?) governed by upvotes on the submissions. > This one isn't even interesting. Apparently some users disagree.

corobo 4y ago

Video for people who cba digging: https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast#demo https://github.com/abe-101/tube-cast#demo My guess would be because you're giving people a way to rip off YouTube content but more specifically because you do so in the video at approx 2:05. They're not massive fans of youtube-dl either which wont help, looks like you're using that to rip the vids under the hood. Best guess, no actual clue.

tootie 4y ago
Yikes, this takes YT videos and rehosts the audio on Anchor. I'm sure OP thought this was a nifty productivity tool, but this is also an easy way to automate content theft. I'm in the podcast biz and it's a big problem that really anyone can just download and rehost content with their own ads layered on and there's no easy way to stop them.
- abe-101 4y ago
  You have a valid point. It can see how this tool can be used with malicious intent. I built it for a local learning organization that streams their lectures on YouTube. They approached me to help them get their content over to podcast. The tool did the job and eliminated many hours of tedious manual work
- joshstrange 4y ago
  > I'm in the podcast biz and it's a big problem that really anyone can just download and rehost content with their own ads layered on and there's no easy way to stop them. How often does this happen in practice and how does it happen? It's not like I google for a podcast each time I want to listen to the new episode and might get sucked into a fake search results with different ads. I add a feed to my podcast app and never touch it again (and I'm adding from a curated podcast catalogue, read: official podcasts only). Maybe if you were trolling for an ad-free feed you might find something but I've never seen what you are describing in the wild.
  - tootie 4y ago
    Honestly, no idea. There's no easy way to police it. We've only ever caught one perp and it was just from someone tweeting at us about it. Yes, platforms like Apple and Spotify will generally try to keep copycats out of their catalogs, but since RSS feeds can come from anywhere, it's pretty easy to setup a fake feed and findable in Google.

rvz 4y ago

I think this is like the 20th time I have said that YouTube doesn't care about the small creators and only appeals to the channels and accounts used by corporations, media giants and some of the largest creators on the platform. As for smaller creators, good luck getting YouTube to change its ways. They will never change and it will only get much worse.

abe-101 4y ago

Update: upon submitting an appeal to YouTube I got a response within 24 hours saying "We have re-reviewed your account and have concluded that it is not in violation of our Terms of Service. Therefore, we have unsuspended your account." So now you can watch the video :) https://youtu.be/HBk-0wRGqHY https://youtu.be/HBk-0wRGqHY Thank you all for the tips