They Tried to Delete Me, But We Fought Back

Last night, on February 13, YouTube terminated my entire channel without any strike or warning. I received an email stating that I had committed “severe or repeated violations” of their policy on “violent criminal organizations.” For months, I had intentionally avoided even saying certain words in my videos to reduce the risk of exactly this outcome, and it didn’t matter.

Within hours, I filed an appeal. It was denied almost instantly. I went public immediately, posted the termination notice, and called on the community to rally.

Earlier in the week, TikTok had quietly demonetized me, wiping out thousands of dollars in earned income. Instagram had banned my account entirely for the 8th time in a row. I was informed that my identity had effectively been blacklisted across Meta platforms.

Three major platforms in one week.

Creators, journalists, and activists began tagging YouTube publicly demanding reinstatement. Our community rallied over 50,000 posts on X pressuring action. People began canceling YouTube Premium and Google services in solidarity, posting receipts online under #BoycottYouTubePremium.

The story briefly began trending on X, then removed it from trending. My account stopped appearing in search results.

This pattern has become obvious: silence it before it spreads. But they miscaclulated the backlash. People kept applying the pressure and the people’s voice multiplied.

Then, early the next morning, YouTube sent another email, after “reviewing” my account again, claimed I was not in violation of their Terms of Service. My entire channel and monetization has been restored. This happened all less than 24 hours after promising I would remain banned.

Nothing about my content changed between the first decision and the second.

The only difference was public pressure, and that should be the lesson here. They reverse course when backlash becomes too visible to ignore. The narrative managers rely on quiet compliance. They want you to believe that all appeals are final with auto-reply bots being the only explanation you’ll ever recieve. The assumption is that isolated creators won’t be defended loudly enough for it to matter.

Howver, last night proved otherwise. This was collective action. This was solidarity in real time. And it worked. But that does not mean the problem is solved.

As of now, X is still limiting my visibility in search. Meta has not restored my account. TikTok is still withholding monetization. Now, Upscrolled, the one platform willing to host our voice freely and fairly, has been taken off the Google play store. The infrastructure of censorship is still intact.

But the one thing that did change is that it’s clear organized/coordinated pressure can disrupt the system. If we do not stand together, we’ll get plucked apart one by one. Last night, you guys stood with me, and I couldn’t thank you enough for having my back. Huge shoutout to everyone who stood by me:

Before I get censored again, make sure you keep up with me on my Substack at yourfavoriteguy.com. Subscribe for FREE or get a paid subscription if you’re financially able to support my work. I appreciate all of you and I’ll never forget how you fought for me ❤️