TL;DR: It was a brutal reprieve of cryptocurrency-related content. YouTube apparently targeted channel creators, suddenly striking videos and entire accounts for no rhyme or reason during the days leading up to and including Christmas. Conspirators cried mass reporting cabals, while others were sure parent company Google was up to no good. In the 24 hours that followed the worst of it, information has now surfaced hinting flagged accounts and videos might have been restored.

YouTubers Claim Some Accounts Restored After Christmas Massacre

By Christmas morning, crypto content creators on the popular video platform awoke to find in some cases years and years of work struck, flagged, or worse. Chris Dunn was particularly hit hard with a decade worth of content and millions of views vanished overnight. “Yesterday my channel strike was removed and videos were showing ‘appeal approved,’ but only a few of them were actually reinstated on my channel again,” Dunn updated followers.

Some media outlets are reporting YouTube representatives claim the company made errors in handling its new guidelines and struck a little too liberally at cryptocurrency content providers by mistake. The statements are light on specifics, and nothing official has been made public as of publication, but it does appear videos are returning as well as channels.

Dunn also revealed a bit of schizophrenia still ongoing, however, as another strike was levied against him though an appeal to YouTube for reinstatement had been approved. “Just noticed today’s new strike is gone and a FEW videos are back (but dozens are still missing),” he posted a little later in the day in relief. Omar Bham who alerted the community to the mass ban, along with keeping a list of channels impacted, announced the warning against his account was removed, that YouTube apologized for the confusion, and that “crypto videos are returning.”

What has happened was put into perspective by veteran YouTuber Ivan on Tech. “YouTube seems to be removing the bans, we will make our videos public again very soon if this continues and other creators get back online,” he assured followers. “This situation has been horrible, but at the same time it brought us together like never before.” Indeed, decentralized hosting platforms like LBRY.io took full advantage of the carnage, which they predicted earlier this month, to offer an alternative. As to whether crypto YouTubers remain or are restored, the real lesson might have finally been learned.

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