#<- i'm tired and extremely sick sorry. i would for these screenshots if i didn't have pseudo covid 19 basically

[moogghost]

i know this ain't going to do anything considering i don't have much of a platform anywhere, but i'm going to write this up just so people are aware. but genuinely, i'm begging people to reblog this because i don't have much of a platform and just got royally fucked over without any way to fix it - i want people to be aware because if you make any playlists on youtube without uploading anything on your account, guess what? this can happen to you too.

i don't get why we're all still putting up with the bullshit way youtube handles its content moderation and not actually getting more in their face about it than usual. no, really.

to preface this, i'm not someone who uploads videos to youtube often and i don't have a twitter account. i have an account for this that i plan to put some stuff on and use for livestreaming, but that's about it. i do not have much of a following at all. well, i guess that's the end of wanting to do that ever again, because even when you don't upload any videos to youtube, did you know that youtube can still give you warnings and strikes for apparently breaking their policies?

yep!

i don't have a single video uploaded to my channel, and yet i still have a channel violation! somehow.

let's go over their supposed reason as to why.

this is the playlist itself, and...yep! they're giving me a community guideline strike for child safety violations on...a music playlist that i've had for over 6 years at this point and don't really add much to any more. what does the playlist have? well, for starters, music - either lyric music videos of songs (i'm hard of hearing, i'm not a fan of people who can't be half-assed to put subtitles on their music videos or put the lyrics in the description below) or video game osts. this is to be expected in a music playlist. reasonably, this pissed me off beyond imagining.

at first, i thought, "okay, maybe one of the non-music videos is what's getting them mad". because in that playlist, i did have vine compilations and other videos i would occasionally go back to watch years ago in there. but it's a little odd that they won't target the videos in the playlist that are so-called violations of their child safety policy and remove those, isn't it? but that's what happened, yep!

i looked over my playlist of around 358 videos, and genuinely, the only things that i could maybe see getting it removed were the 30 minute uploads of video game osts, specifically any pokemon music. and they were removed or rendered unable to be accessed, yep! the vine compilations? i checked all of them in there, none of them were removed from the platform for child safety violations if they had any - which made it more wild that my playlist of videos i never uploaded in the first place was deleted?

and yes, i do mean the entire playlist was deleted. straight up, without any notice or heads-up.

this was the only notice i got, and by then, the playlist was already removed:

i was not given any heads up, especially when everything seemed fine when i checked my youtube studio for this non-uploading youtube account yesterday - yes, i'm aware youtube doesn't ever give a heads up. that doesn't mean i'm not going to put it out there that they didn't even do it for a playlist that has a bunch of videos on it and has for several years, videos that i didn't even upload.

it was a private playlist, at that. one that i hadn't been actively adding anything to for a while, anything i added to it only being on accident as i had made new playlists since - my music taste has changed overtime, and when i make a new playlist it reflects that.

angry, i sent in an appeal with a comment, i can't really grab it considering i had hope it would be fixed when i woke up from my nap (i am extremely sick rn and can't do much at all! very important context to note and why i'm considering being nice about this less). could i have worded it nicer? sure, i was livid and lashing out a little. but i think you guys have to know that youtube's appeals are handled by bots by now. it does not matter what i say in a comment or feedback, because y'all have to know that it doesn't do shit half the time anyways, especially if you're a small creator or anyone without any sort of platform.

this was what i woke up to, around 11 PM EST. a response, barely 4 hours after my appeal was sent in.

if this isn't proof that this is done just by bots, then i don't know what else is. it's a 358 video long playlist that you would have to comb through manually. no human reviewed this.

but yep, this was the bullshit response i received over a completely valid appeal! i don't think i can exactly stress how much this infuriated me, and how much it still does. i needed a moment to go destroy something because that's how livid it made me. and i don't usually get like this any more, i haven't gotten mad enough at something where i punched a hole in the wall in years. because this warning, this is a warning clearly done and reviewed by bots, with no care for any of its users, and done to an account that doesn't even upload any videos, only makes playlists - and anyone with a brain can tell you that this playlist was private. almost all of my playlists are, besides the playlist i have for sharing fucked up beats to my friends on vc. and that's unlisted.

so i went to go find a way to send feedback. i don't have a twitter account nor a platform, so i couldn't bother them about it that way - which really is some level of bullshit if you don't already have a name for yourself. i'm not making a twitter account for this - i refuse to, and frankly i can't because my parents would find out as they use that site and that would put me in a very dangerous situation, outing myself as several things they would either disown me for (being queer) or put me in a psych ward for (being a system and generally just showing signs of many years of untreated mental illness and trauma).

i had to go out of my way to find a method to send anything to them that wouldn't make it about youtube purchases, because that's the only thing they're willing to listen to help for - when it costs you your money. i had to go out of my way to send feedback, and frankly? i have no regrets in cussing them out for not fixing their content moderation. it'll likely get responded to by a bot if at all, and if not, then i frankly think someone who isn't a bot at youtube deserves to fully understand just how furious this situation is for its users. it's within my right to be mad, and as a persecutor within our system, i'm in my right to lash out knowing damn well knowing no one at youtube's listening even if i was polite about it. if my account gets termed for it or a warning for this, then that's only more proof that youtube can't be half-assed to listen to any of its users, including the ones who don't actively upload to the site and not just content creators. i know damn well that being nice won't get them to listen either. so what does this mean, really?

no one is safe on their platform if they want to use it. yeah, the platform they so desperately want everyone to use for any form of video content, that one.

with the unwillingness to fix their content moderation and appeal system, you really can't be safe using their platform ever. if you just make playlists and keep them private? they can still give you warnings, hell, even give you strikes. and they won't bother to send anyone who isn't a bot to review any appeals. it's been going on for years, and they won't fix it. ...it doesn't even help that there's genuine child endangerment and more illegal stuff on this platform, content that youtube is unwilling to do shit about. they'd much rather send their minions (bots) to go harass users over false flags instead. ...and as someone who's been a victim of child endangerment myself? yeah. then making me sit through training with what they said to be potentially triggering descriptions of that shit. you can imagine how mad this made me, and how bad of a paranoid spiral this shit with no explanation or warning sent me into, all while being extremely sick. thanks for that btw, youtube! you sure do love the mentally ill /s

i've since made a backup playlist or two without the videos i loosely suspect to be the cause out of spite, really, but i really can't tell which is the cause when youtube refuses to tell me what flagged that in the first place. and yknow what? it pisses me off, because if i hadn't already decided to save some music videos from it to other playlists, it would've been over 6 years of lost content that i likely wouldn't be able to find again because some of that shit is unlisted. yeah. i haven't gotten a response on the feedback telling youtube to fix their fucking content moderation (yes, that's what i said pretty much. no, i have no regrets bc frankly they have to know by now that people have been complaining about this nonsense for years, no?), and will likely reblog with an update if/when they do.

what i wanna know is why people aren't being more vocal about this shit.

yes, i know people have been in the past. that doesn't mean it's enough, though? youtube is currently the main platform for video form content in general, and it's batshit wild to me that people aren't causing more of a ruckus about it. because if people are unwilling to go to alternate video content sites besides twitch, then it really needs to be talked about more and for no one to ever shut up about it so youtube can't forget. genuinely. i don't understand why it starts up every so often (only when it affects a big content creator, mind you!) and then people don't continue to speak up after it's semi-resolved. you do realise that this proves that they can very well go after whatever you do on the platform, even you aren't uploading videos but simply using a basic feature like making a private playlist? and that they won't listen just as much as they won't to big creators, except the difference is that they at least have a chance to be listened to.

they won't even consider listening to anyone who doesn't.

so really, i hope people reblog this and spread awareness. because it's bullshit that youtube's been getting away with this, especially when they're one of the most used platforms for video content and people should get to know that this bullshit can happen to them too, even if they don't upload any content. youtube just straight up doesn't want us to use their platform unless we're paying them money. and that should make people more mad, it should make you speak up about it more.