Few platforms provide significant year-on-year growth in terms of paid subscribers and sponsors for content creators, but YouTube has proved more dynamic than most. For example, COVID accelerated home viewing time to such an extent that YouTube now accounts for around 25% of all streamed content in the U.S.
Sex education is a very popular niche on YouTube because many people in countries like India don’t have access to public sex ed. That’s why, back in 2020, I decided to start my YouTube channel, “In Bed With Kate,” dedicated to sex toy reviews and sexual wellness. Since then I have gained 2,000 subscribers, even though YouTube doesn’t allow the promotion or monetization of 18-and-over content.
The more noise you create on social media and other public forums, the better your chance of getting your case processed sooner rather than later.
I have put a lot of energy and time into this project, but in May 2022 I received an email saying that my channel had been permanently deleted for violating community guidelines. Many people in our business are facing this problem every day because automated moderation systems don’t distinguish between sex-ed content and sexually explicit content. As someone who got a channel back in less than 24 hours, I would like to share with you how I did it. Usually it takes people weeks or even months, but there are some ways to speed this process up!
When your channel is terminated, you receive an email from YouTube that includes a link to appeal. Don’t rush to submit an appeal right away. First you have to read the community guidelines carefully and see if you really violated something. Sometimes AI just catches a word or phrase, and you need a real person to take a look at your channel. For instance, “sexual content and nudity” is prohibited unless it’s “educational content.” In my case, the system detected some “sexually explicit” images in my videos and terminated my account even though, as a sex educator, I shouldn’t have had a problem. So I listed all the supposed violations and explained the purpose of my content and why I believed they had made a mistake.
Submit an Appeal
After gathering the info, carefully word your appeal. Try to leave out unnecessary words, so that you can keep it under 950 characters, using the first few characters to provide them with all your contact info. Begin with the obvious. AI technology simply doesn’t understand the purpose of content, so ask a human to have a look — or if you really did violate the rules, then raise your hand and promise never to do it again. Pledge to be a good YouTuber from now on. How you play it depends on what they suspended you for.
Here are some other points to note. When they ask you to include your unique information such as your custom URL and your channel ID, remember to include any reference numbers they sent with the termination notice. Usually the Google account connected to your channel has to be identified when you submit an appeal. If they cannot identify you, you will receive the message “Account not recognized, your appeal cannot be continued.” In that case, try resubmitting from another browser or use a different device. I had to do this several times. Then you can either just wait or take some additional actions to speed up the process. Personally, I am not a big fan of waiting, so here are your next steps!
Email Creator Support
Even though creator support agents don’t make any decisions — those are made by the Google moderation team — you can at least reach a real human who can make sure your appeal is on the right track. Try not to be emotional and angry with creator support agents; keep in mind that they are dealing with disappointed YouTubers all day long. Be nice instead and maybe they will appreciate it and help you out faster.
YouTube Support Forums
Another way to recover your channel is to move into the YouTube support forums and type: “Help, channel down!” with your channel URL and a brief explanation of what happened. Hopefully, one of the YouTube employees will take your case on and support your application for account restoration.
Tweet @TeamYouTube
You can reach a real human by engaging YouTube’s Twitter account, so don’t waste time. Write a tweet with your channel ID and explain why your channel was terminated by mistake. Then, ask your channel audience/followers to retweet to: Tweet@TeamYouTube. I did this on Instagram and Facebook because retweets and reposts increase the odds of getting YouTube’s attention.
To sum up, the more noise you create on social media and other public forums, the better your chance of getting your case processed sooner rather than later. After all the noise I made, they processed my appeal within several hours on a Friday evening. So if you really haven’t broken any rules and YouTube is a big part of your life or business, don’t give up. You can get your account back if you put in enough effort.
Kate Kozlova is a creator of the sex-education YouTube channel, “InBedWithKate.”
