In today’s article, we are going to talk about the reasons why YouTube might suspend or terminate your channel. Why are we talking about this? The reason why we are talking about this is because it matters to you if you are a YouTuber. If you own a YouTube channel, you really need to know this. Knowing this will help you avoid getting your channel suspended or terminated. Hence read through to the end to protect your channel from potential penalties. So now without wasting anymore time, let us go straight into it.
Reason #1. Community Guidelines Violations.
If you violate YouTube community guidelines, then you could very easily end up with a channel suspension or even worse termination. I know now you are asking what are these YouTube community guidelines? I know you have never read them . However, don’t worry. We are going to highlight for you these community guidelines so that you do not end up breaking them. Here they are:
- Hate speech. This is content that promotes violence or discrimination.
- Harassment & cyber-bullying.
- Child safety violations. This is inappropriate content involving minors.
- Nudity & sexual content. This is especially non-consensual or exploitative content.
- Violent or graphic content. This is especially if it’s shocking or meant to glorify violence.
- Misinformation. For example medical, election-related or dangerous false information.
Reason #2. Copyright Violations.
Violating copyright of content that you do not own can lead to suspension or termination of your channel. Even though there are permissions that allow you to sample or quote other people’s content, there certain things that will get you penalized. If you just take copyrighted content of someone else and post it on your channel, then you will be penalized.
However, the best part is that YouTube doesn’t just suspend your channel for one time or a simple mistake. YouTube has the three-strikes rule which states that if you violate the copyright rules 3 times they suspend you. Thus for the first and second time they just give you a warning. However if you repeat a third time, then your channel will be suspended or terminated. So do not worry about making a mistake, you still have room for correction. Better yet, before you publish the video, YouTube system does a copyright check of your content and informs you if it is copyrighted or not. Hence if copyrighted you can refuse to publish and just delete it.
However, note that in very serious situations like live streaming a copyrighted movie, will get your channel suspended/terminated immediately. Even without the three-strikes rule. Hence avoid such actions that could get you in trouble with YouTube copyright rules.
Reason #3. Repeated Community Strikes.
Another reason why YouTube might suspend your channel is repeated community strikes. If you keep violating the YouTube community guidelines again and again then they will suspend you. This is usually guided by the three-strikes rule. This means that if you get 3 strikes within 90 days, YouTube will definitely suspend/terminate your channel.
Reason #4. Spam, Scams, or Deceptive Practices.
Another reason why YouTube can suspend or terminate your channel is spam, scams or deceptive practices. I know some of you out there might be naive and you do not know exactly what this means. You might not know exactly what is spam, scam or deceptive practices. To help you, we list below some of these spam, scam and deceptive practices you should avoid.
- Clickbait & misleading content. For example fake giveaways or misleading titles.
- Artificial engagement. For example, buying likes, views, or subscribers.
- Impersonation. For example pretending to be someone else.
- Promoting scams or fraud. For example fake investment schemes or phishing links.
Reason #5. Violating Monetization Policies.
YouTube is very careful when it comes to protecting its bottom-line. If there is one thing that can very easily lead to YouTube suspending your channel is monetization policies. You know YouTube is in business to make money. Hence if you interfere with their ability to make money they will punish you. If you abuse AdSense to try to finesse YouTube to make extra illegitimate money, they will definitely suspend your channel.
In addition to that, if you engage in click fraud, YouTube will definitely suspend your channel. But what is click fraud? Click fraud is whereby you click or ask people to click on the ads playing on your videos with the sole purpose of inflating ad clicks numbers. Its wrong don’t do it or otherwise YouTube will terminate your channel.
Another thing that will make YouTube terminate your channel is if you operate multiple channels with the sole intent of evading bans. You should not open multiple channels just so that you can avoid YouTube penalties.
Reason #6. External Violations.
These are illegal actions committed outside YouTube but end up affecting your YouTube channel. For example if you engage in criminal activities, YouTube may suspend or terminate your channel. In addition to that, if you violate your local laws, YouTube could also suspend your channel. For example, hacking, threats or illegal sales will lead to YouTube penalizing you.
Reason #7. Evading Bans.
When YouTube bans you, you need to stay banned . Simply, this means that you should not play tricks to avoid YouTube penalties like bans. If they ban you from their platform you need to stay away. Say for example if you have one channel that posts copyrighted content, then they suspend it. You should not move that suspended content to another channel. You should completely remove the copyrighted content from YouTube completely.
What to Do if Your Channel Is Suspended?
If your channel is suspended and you believe that its a mistake, you can apply for an appeal. Go to your channel and go through the complete process of launching an appeal. Once you do that, YouTube team will manually review your channel. If they determine it was a mistake then they will restore it. On the other hand, if they determine that it was a rightful suspension then they will retain it.
Conclusion.
Now you know the Reasons why YouTube Might Suspend or Terminate Your channel. So you know all the things you should not do so that YouTube does not suspend your channel. Hence avoid all the things we have in this article.
From MediaGeneous, we wish you all the best in your YouTube channel.
