How to report a YouTube video: In case you found infringing videos on YouTube

Today we shall learn how to report a YouTube video. First of all, you have to get to the lower portion of the video while watching it and click on the ‘Report’ button (if you are on a mobile device) or ‘More’ button (if you’re on PC). The ‘More’ button will lead you to the ‘Report’ option.

Now you have to choose one of the few options put in front of you. We shall discuss each choice in a different section.

Sexual content

If you find a YouTube video to be sexually explicit and think it shouldn’t be on YouTube or at least should be age-restricted, then you can report it. Based on the number of reports submitted, the video might be removed from YouTube and a community guidelines strike imposed on the concerned channel. Remember that sexually explicit videos based on education like breastfeeding or female organ investigation don’t need to be reported. Even if you report, nothing will happen to them.

If you find such a video to be age-restricted, then you may watch the full video to find what’s wrong with it and then report. (You have to be an adult to watch this type of content). Videos with inappropriate content  or misleading metadata aimed to achieve artificial traffic should be removed from YouTube no matter what. (This post is on how to report a YouTube video)

Violent or repulsive content

If violent activities are recorded with camera and published on YouTube, they should be reported anyway. This is because such display may promote further violations. ‘Repulsive’ means something disgusting. If somebody records a video of garbage or someone doing a dirty activity like pissing on the roadside and then uploads on YouTube, it will be considered as repulsive content.

This type of thing is not only unwanted on YouTube, but also is disgusting. Viewers encountering such videos on YouTube may be displeased with YouTube itself once and for all and may even decide to never return to YouTube again. That’s why such videos aren’t allowed on YouTube. (This post is on how to report a YouTube video)

Hateful or abusive content

If someone uploads a video on YouTube with a view to spread a hate speech towards a certain individual or a protected group, then it may be reported. This doesn’t mean that you can not make a negative product or service review, you certainly can do that. If you’re dissatisfied with the services provided by a company or organization, you can publish a video on YouTube based on what you think about them. There are tons of videos like this on YouTube.

But ‘hate speech’ is a different thing. Take American politics for example. The Democrats can’t just create a new YouTube channel in order to harass the reigning Republicans. A few months ago I found a channel whose sole purpose was to spread ‘hate speech’ against Awami League, the ruling party of Bangladesh. But I don’t find that channel anymore; that means it already has been terminated.

Also you can’t possibly abuse someone on your YouTube video. Last year I saw a Facebook video where a Bangladeshi expatriate was threatening the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. According to him, Hasina was a big enemy of Islam. That guy even showed bad body language and a ‘pointing stick’. Well, such creepy videos might be allowed on Facebook and other social networking sites, but not on YouTube.

Harmful dangerous acts

You might have seen a YouTube video that shows a person jumping from one rooftop to another. Content like this may be entertaining, but they may encourage viewers to try these dangerous maneuvers. So they shouldn’t be allowed on YouTube, though there are many videos with such content on YouTube to this day. The reason why they’re existing is that most YouTube users/viewers don’t know these videos are illegal on YouTube. Some even don’t have the time and will to report infringing videos. I can’t blame others, ’cause I’m one of those guys myself.

Take another example. A person suffering from diabetes may intake insulin injection. He may choose to upload a YouTube video on this. While he shows the whole procedure, he may do something dangerous like using an old/used syringe. If so, then the video will be said to contain and promote dangerous acts. So this sort of videos can be reported as well. (This post is on how to report a YouTube video)

Child abuse

Suppose your neighbor aunty put you in charge of her infant baby momentarily while she was away for a reason. And you chose to play with the baby anyway. At some point you might get the ‘bright’ idea of hitting the baby and making it cry. You did that and recorded the whole thing. It might seem funny or entertaining to some people, but you also need to keep in mind that your video might actually encourage others to ‘perform’ such inhuman acts. So this type of video is totally illegal on YouTube. If found, they are instantly removed and community strikes are placed on the concerned channels.

Promotes terrorism

Take the example of a terrorist or a militant. He knows how to make a bomb and may decide to create a video on it. If he does so, the video will be said to promote terrorism. So such activities aren’t allowed on YouTube. (This post is on how to report a YouTube video)

Spam content: How to report a YouTube video

You know when you upload a video on YouTube, it’s artificial intelligence searches for the right audience for your particular video. If most of the viewers find your video to be irrelevant and unwanted, they may choose to report it as ‘spam’. I hereby like to share one of my experiences regarding it.

Last year in the month of August I created a new YouTube channel and uploaded a few videos on my nephew and niece. I previously had taken them to a shopping mall and recorded their activities, like going up and down on an escalator. Surprisingly enough, that channel was terminated within 24 hours of time. I never realized the reason of that termination, for you know YouTube doesn’t explicitly show the reason of a channel termination. And there is nothing you can do about it, unless you have access to California federal courts where YouTube legal issues are dissolved.

Probably viewers reported my videos as ‘spam’ as they found them useless and unwanted. Such videos aren’t probably allowed on YouTube. If they were, we would get to see hundreds of thousands of YouTube videos on people’s personal activities like taking selfies, birthday parties etc.

It could also have been a doing of a few of my rivals. Since I shared the videos on Facebook, they might have to come to know about it and reported my videos along with their friends and associates. You might know that YouTube policies are changed every few months. May be this sort of videos are allowed on YouTube now-a-days to some extent. Anyway, I never tried personal videos on YouTube later for obvious reasons.

Misleading content

If you use misleading metadata on your YouTube videos and thus try to have artificial traffic, you might be penalized. Misleading metadata actually presents ‘wrong’ videos to the viewers. These videos are termed ‘wrong’ in the sense that most of the viewers may find these irrelevant and unwanted. (This post is on how to report a YouTube video)

At first sight, the video title and/or thumbnail may seem appealing to the viewers. But once they start watching it, they will soon realize that it’s not what they wanted or were looking for. Then they might decide to report such videos. We actually have a number of articles on metadata and misleading metadata. They’re listed below:

Metadata: When it becomes misleading and leads your YouTube account to termination

Examples of misleading metadata: Be able to identify the infringing videos on YouTube

Examples of misleading metadata – episode 2

Infringing your rights

This section would be so vast in size that we prefer to publish an entire post on this one. This will be available very soon. However, if you like to report for infringing your copyright, then click on the following link and do as you’re instructed:

Youtube copyright claim: Learn how to do that

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