YouTube bans streamer Ludwig — then reverses ban

June 16, 2021

Popular variety Twitch streamer Ludwig Ahgren, most known for his month-long subathon that earned him the record for the most Twitch subscriptions, recently received a one-week ban on his main YouTube channel for violating YouTube’s “child safety” policy. The ban both shocked and confounded the streamer because the deleted video in question (a “you-laugh-you-lose” style video) didn’t contain any clips not currently on YouTube.

Ludwig found out about his ban during his stream in front of thousands of people. He spent over an hour trying to figure out what part of the video violated YouTube’s policy and couldn’t come up with a specific clip. The ban stung extra hard for Ludwig because not only would he lose out a week’s worth of revenue from YouTube, it would also end his 618-day upload streak (something that’s acted as a motivator for him). He took to Twitter to call out YouTube’s team to review the video. Soon after his tweet, #FreeLudwig began trending.

I've just got banned on @TeamYouTube for a week after a video got flagged for "child safety"

This means the end of my 618 day upload streak

The first time I won't upload a video in almost 2 years

Sad day
— ludwig (@LudwigAhgren) June 15, 2021

YouTube’s response

With the issue trending combined with Ludwig’s influence in the community, YouTube responded to Ludwig’s tweet notifying him they’ve reversed the ban and reinstated the video with an age restriction. So, Ludwig and his community rejoiced, knowing he’d be able to keep his upload streak alive.

Following up – we heard back from our team and your video has been reinstated with age restriction. You can learn more about Age Restricted Content here: https://t.co/CaX7aMdscj. You should be able to continue uploading videos, let us know if you're seeing otherwise.
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 15, 2021

What can we take away from this

Though this story has a happy ending for Ludwig, it highlights a significant issue on YouTube. Its system for banning is flawed. The fact that YouTube never told Ludwig what portion of his video got flagged and that he didn’t have time to address the issue is problematic. Creators that are a lot smaller than Ludwig likely would’ve had to wait out the weeklong ban, even if their video didn’t violate YouTube’s policies.

There are a lot of creators who rely on their YouTube channels for income. Missing a week or more of uploads could be detrimental to them. Even though creators can, dispute the ban, it takes YouTube a while to address the issue. Hopefully, YouTube considers revising how it handles bans because currently, creators are mostly powerless even if it’s a mistake made by YouTube or its algorithm.