14-days ago we told you about YouTube terminating the entire StartupBros YouTube channel — instantly deleting over 200 videos (with over 2-million views)…
After 6-years of following the rules — investing $10’s-of-thousands of dollars in equipment & staff to create valuable content that helped grow the YouTube platform…
…YouTube has repaid us by deleting everything at the click of a button…
We strongly felt (as do you guys) that our channel was wrongfully terminated, so we immediately got to work getting it reinstated…
Here’s everything we’ve done since our last update:
7/28: We immediately submitted an appeal using the official YouTube form (you can read that appeal here). 2-weeks later, and we still haven’t received any official response on this original appeal…
7/30: We started tweeting @YouTube, @TeamYouTube, and @ytcreators trying to get somebody to give us any additional information. We also had hundreds of Bro’s tweeting out with us. We never received a response…
7/31: YouTube suddenly terminated a bunch of cryptocurrency channels for the exact same reason as our channel — we thought we might finally be getting somewhere. Maybe whatever bug caused our channel to be terminated will finally be squashed, and all will be right in the world…
After we saw @TeamYouTube responding to some of these cryptocurrency channels on Twitter, we hopped in and tried to hijack the conversation. This finally got them to respond to our tweets…
So that was the response we worked so hard for…
8/3: Looks like all those cryptocurrency channels already got reinstated, and all their channels are back in full force. So this confirms — YouTube does not treat all channels the same…
For whatever reason, our appeal was put at the back of the line — despite the fact our channel was terminated 4-days BEFORE these channels…
It seems the only way to actually get your channel reinstated is to make enough noise that it becomes a problem for YouTube. So unfortunately — since there are no journalists writing about the StartupBros Channel Termination, it seems we are not getting a response to our appeal any time soon…
8/5: We tried making a post on the YouTube Support Forums to try getting someone’s attention. This seems to have worked for some channels in the past…
8/5: We finally got a response from a human being — not to our appeal, but through YouTube’s Creator Support! Unfortunately, it’s not a very helpful one…
A fine gentleman named Mclin sent us this –
So apparently there was an internal review team who already reviewed our appeal decided to keep our account suspended based on “Community Guidelines” and “Terms of Service”…
Because Mclin is from a different department, we decided to NOT treat this as a final decision — and continued waiting for an official response on our actual appeal…
8/7: We decided to submit another appeal. This one is a lot more broad that our original appeal, addressing a bunch of common algorithmic screw-ups people have ran into…
8/10: I’m writing this update to you fine folks to ask for more help. 14-days in, and we still have no idea what happened or how to fix it…
8/10: Well color me impressed. Just a few minutes after publishing this update, we got an update on our case from a real human being!
I’m not proud of the amount of joy Lei brought myself and our team with this email — just letting us know we haven’t been forgotten about…
But it’s definitely the best progress we’ve had so far. It looks like the duo of Lei & his sidekick Mclin may have finally gotten our appeal escalated to a human review…
We immediately replied to Lei to let him know he’s our new favorite person at Google…
We Need Your Help!
It seems like YouTube has lost control of its own algorithms, and that the only way to get a human review is to make lots of noise…
So we could really use your help one last time in asking YouTube to reinstate our account…
1. Retweet our latest tweet to help get YouTube’s attention. Let them know StartupBros isn’t training the next generation of criminals…
2. Want to do something extra? Reply to our post in the YouTube Support Forums — sometimes that can make a big difference!
3. Know anyone at YouTube or Google that can help fix this? Know any journalists who might be interested in this story? Any introductions would be appreciated!
Being Forced to Make Big Changes
Moving forward, we’re making some major changes…
1. Our entire video library is currently being uploaded & mirrored around every video network we can find…
- Self-Hosted on the StartupBros Website
- YouTube Alternatives like Lbry, BitChute,
- Inside social networks like Facebook & Instagram
We’re still hoping to get our YouTube channel reinstated, but either way — you’ll be able to find StartupBros videos on tons of different sites 🙂
2. All of our new videos will be better than ever. While most of YouTube creates content specifically designed to maximize their chances with the algorithm, we’ll be creating content designed to maximize your chances of success…
YouTube has made it clear to us — there will be no complex or sophisticated business discussion on their platform…
So if you want bland 10-minute videos that barely scratch the surface — keep watching YouTube videos. But if you want to actually understand how to become financially independent — you’re going to have to look elsewhere…
Since YouTube’s algorithm hates us anyways — we’re going to focus on you guys instead. We’re back to making content for YOU, and only YOU.
3. We’re moving resources away from anything algorithmic, and investing more heavily in ‘non-algorithmic marketing’…
When you’re in the favor of these algorithms, you get lazy and complacent. So we stopped doing a lot of useful things — like being interviewed on other people’s podcasts or creating content for other people’s platforms…
But these forms of decentralized, distributed word-of-mouth marketing tend to be more reliable in the long-run. And the audience you build in the process tends to be much more engaged than the algo-driven ones.
4. We’re putting a lot more love & attention into the StartupBros Website/Platform itself…
You’ll soon see several new pages on the StartupBros site, like the Video Library or the page to tune into the Live Show.
More details on these soon…
In Closing — Please Help!
Hopefully our YouTube debacle helps some of you out there — whether you’re currently fighting our algorithmic overlords, or you’re just starting out and want to avoid this happening to you…
But either way — if you want the StartupBros channel to keep churning out videos like it was — we could really use your help in making it happen!
Check out all the ways you can help here (we really appreciate it!)
