How Youtube killed my channel

As you may know along with this blog, I also operate(d) a Youtube channel, where I uploaded my travel videos, which were mostly about aviation and some about me visiting interesting industrial trade fairs. My channel had only 320 subscribers, but more than 70.000 views in less than a year. I was happy with those numbers, because I actually never expected so many people to watch my videos. It was actually a huge motivation to improve both my editing skills and my equipment. In the end, I think, that my videos were on a par with most big aviation channels from a quality standpoint.

But even more important than those numbers, were the numerous interactions I had with my viewers. Together we discussed the best airlines, the coolest trips and so on. I felt that there was a community in the making.

Now this is all over.

What happened? This morning I received a message by Google, that my account “The Jetstreamer Travel Reports” is suspended because of an infraction of community guidelines. They claim I was a spammer and a cheater. In fact, it seems I am even worse than Logan Paul.

So my account is closed, all videos are gone and I can’t even log on to Youtube. Even more than that, the message says I’m not allowed to use any other Youtube accounts. They have even removed all comments that I made on other Youtube videos.

They want to make it look as if I have never existed. The message is: Youtube can vaporize anybody.

But why did all this happen? I have no idea, to be honest. I only had a small channel, where I showed videos about my flights with different airlines and me staying at cool places.

What happened in the past few days though, was that a lot of people appeared on my channel and wanted subs4subs, which is not uncommon since Youtube announced a change of its monetization policy. Most of those comments landed in my spam folder. I didn’t subscribe to all of them, no. I chose a few small channels that I actually found some interest in such as a channel about golf and another one from a Portuguese guy about fishing. At all those channels I left a comment, thanking them for discovering my channel, saying I liked their channel and wishing them good luck for the future.

Maybe that was interpreted as spamming, I don’t know. Other than that I don’t remember any wrongdoing. The music on my videos came either from the Youtube sound library or was arranged by myself using Garage band or Komplete 10 by Native Instruments.

In the end I am sad that Youtube decided to destroy my channel – on the one hand. On the other, I want to let them know that they never will kill my right to express myself. If they don’t want my videos for some reason, someone else will. That’s why I am uploading all my content on Dailymotion and Vimeo now, so that it remains on the Internet. Of course, I will probably not achieve as many views as I had on Youtube. But any visitor of this blog can still watch them. That’s the most important thing in my view.

I had very difficult times in my life, nearly dying at age 24, so if Youtube thinks they can make me small, I can only laugh about it. Thankfully Youtube was not my job, but only a hobby.

In the end I will win. My channel was on a good way because of the quality it delivered. And I will continue to create travel videos, no matter what Youtube does. I won’t wastte my time with them any longer.