The gaming meme channel, Fainted, has been terminated by YouTube. It was no small channel, housing more than 523,000 subscribers and making ample income even at the basest level, according to Social Blade. However, YouTube had no qualms about dropping the axe on the meme factory.
The U.K., based content creator informed his audience via Twitter that YouTube nuked the channel.
On the evening of August 2nd, 2019, Fainted made the following post on Twitter.
so my life has just crumbled right infront of my eyes. i cant even explain how much this hurts.
@TeamYouTube please can you take another look at this. my channel “Fainted” has been terminated. please i voice act funny posts pic.twitter.com/V0tKdYjOR0
— fainted (@faintedsad) August 3, 2019
He followed up by stating that there were no community guideline violations and that he received no warning nor any sort of heads-up about the termination that took place.
i had 0 active community guideline strikes before being terminated with no warning. my channel had 520,000 subscribers, i made content voice acting tweets, text messages, facebook/tinder posts and other funny stuff. here is the latest screenshot of my channel i could find pic.twitter.com/QgQEbQ63cO
— fainted (@faintedsad) August 3, 2019
It’s true, if you visit the YouTube channel for Fainted, you’re met with a message that states that the account violated YouTube’s community guidelines regarding content designed to harass, bully, or threaten others. We don’t know what video resulted in the termination but YouTube determined that something within the video went against their guidelines and so they completely wiped the channel off the net.
Fainted received more than three thousand likes and several hundred retweets as of the writing of this article in order to help broadcast the message to YouTube.
Sometimes the noise on Twitter or other social media platforms can help wrangle the attention of YouTube’s support staff to the incident. Other times it requires getting dragged through the media by media headlines to finally get YouTube to respond, or in an extreme case, to react.
Given that Fainted has more than half a minute subscribers, I’m sure eventually YouTube will take a look at the account. Whether or not it will be restored is completely up in the air, but right now the video hosting giant has not responded to Fainted’s plea for help.
YouTube has been on a termination spree much like when Winona Ryder was going through her kleptomania phase.
However, the company has been specifically targeting channels that either post historical content, such as Dr. Ludwig’s folk songs or Dero Volk’s national anthems, or they’ve been targeting politically incorrect content and creators, such as demonetizing Nerdette’s Newstand or striking Teal Deer’s account for criticizing the Left-wing pundit Dan Olson.
Many people who classify themselves as Libertarians, free speech advocates, or as anti-censorship activists have warned everybody about YouTube’s increasing censorship standards and Google’s manipulation of search results, but too many Centrists™ have muddied the conversation by claiming that there is no agenda, there is no censorship, and that YouTube is just a private company exercising their rights.
If big tech keeps up this aggressive censorship campaign leading into the 2020 election season, there won’t be many online rights that denizens will have left to exercise.
(Thanks for the news tip Clownfish TV)
