Q: Is it legal for YouTube to turn my personal videos which are set to public, but not as "shorts" for public consumption?
The unwanted broadcast of my videos brought the attention of trolls to channel and began an insult conflict resulting in a ban and a strike that will ultimately lose my channel and my personal vlog containing 600+ videos only ment to be shared with my family and associates.
Also, I've noticed that my comments that meet the standard for their terms have disappeared from videos I've commented on. There has been dozens of occasions and forced me to always copy my comments and take screenshots of them as a precaution, which is extremely time consuming especially when my comments span several paragraphs to which in some cases have to be retyped from memory resulting in a lackluster expression, absolute frustration, and the grief of the violation of my free speech. I have several links and screenshots of comments that have disappeared, comments that I believe the content creators have no issue with. Another issue is appealing a ban. They give no information on the comment in question.
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A:
Based on the information provided, there are a few key things to consider regarding YouTube's actions here:
- If your videos are set to "public" on YouTube, then legally YouTube has the right to showcase or promote them as they see fit. Setting videos as public gives them permission to use and broadcast the content. However, you could try setting them to "unlisted" or "private" if you only intend for them to be viewed by certain people.
- YouTube likely has the legal right to remove or hide comments, even if they meet the terms of service. As a private platform, they have discretion over what content appears. However, abruptly deleting non-offensive comments does seem frustrating and lack transparency.
- If you received a ban or strike, and are unsure what content violated the rules, you should absolutely appeal and request more details. Most platforms have an appeals process specifically for this reason. Insist on understanding the problematic content so you can avoid issues going forward.
- As far as losing your channel due to strikes over time - this would be an extreme measure if you have mostly unintentional or minor offenses. Again, aggressively appealing each case may help here. Demonstrating you want to comply with rules but are unsure what to improve could motivate them to reconsider banning entirely.
In summary - you likely don't have much legal recourse to force YouTube to handle your content differently. However, strong appeals explaining your intentions may help regain some control over how your videos are used and reduce risk of losing the channel.
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