On the morning of June 6th, 2019 Streamlabs informed the creator community that their chatbot account on YouTube had been terminated. Streamlabs is a service that helps Twitch users and YouTubers organize their chat streams while making bank from donations, yet it was one of the many victims of YouTube’s termination spree. When the Streamlabs account reached out to YouTube about it, they were told that the team at YouTube would be looking into the issue.
A couple of hours after Streamlabs made the tweet, the support team at YouTube chimed in to let them know that they would be investigating.
We’ve passed it along to our team for a check and will get back as soon as we know more. Appreciate your patience.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 6, 2019
Users attempting to moderate comments or modify the chat bot settings have been unable to do so. They’ve been asking Streamlabs about the issue all day long, but the Streaming service has basically had to inform people that there’s nothing that they can do since the channel has been terminated by YouTube.
Unfortunately this is an issue currently due to our channel being suspended from YT. It’s being investigated as we speak! Sorry for the inconvenience 🙁
— Streamlabs (@streamlabs) June 6, 2019
Damn @YouTube what are y’all doing lol
— YTmr.J0k3R (@TheJ0k3RShow) June 6, 2019
So what did YouTube terminate Streamlabs’ account for? Well, if you attempt to visit the Streamlabs YouTube channel, it shows an error stating that the account has been terminated for spam, or misleading information, or deceptive practices.
The last update from YouTube about the channel was 12 hours before the publishing of this article. Why exactly has it taken so long to restore the Streamlabs account? I don’t know. I did attempt to reach out to Streamlabs about it but they haven’t responded yet.
Content creator Drunken Peasants – who had one of their videos banned from YouTube as part of the new wave of censorship – took a dig at YouTube for terminating Streamlabs’ account, which came during the company’s wave of terminations due to the VoxAdpocalypse.
How exactly does @streamlabs get suspended on @YouTube? They’re just a very useful tool for independent content creators that also doesn’t take a huge percentage of our donation revenue. Unlike someone else…#VoxAdpocalypse https://t.co/2NhBCJ1gjK
— Drunken Peasants (@DrunkenPeasants) June 6, 2019
For those of you unfamiliar with the VoxAdpocalypse, Memology101 does a decent recap of everything you need to know about the individual involved.
With enough pushback and community outcry I’m sure Streamlabs’ account will be restored, but it’s quite telling that YouTube seems to be targeting any and everyone. They even hit an electronic music channel for “hate speech”.
It doesn’t look like the censorship spree will be coming to an end any time soon, and it looks like even non-political channels are being targeted.
(Thanks for the news tip Quanisha Lewis)
