YouTube Doesn't Want You to Use a Media Server at Home

It is not uncommon to find Google and YouTube at the center of a controversy.

They always tend to do something to become the bad guy they may not have intended to be 😉

We recently covered about the non-skippable ads and manifest v3. It does not stop there, of course, there's plenty of history with Google and YouTube, right?

Now, adding to the list, YouTube recently took down Jeff Geerling's video on setting up a media server with Jellyfin (an open-source self-hosted alternative to Plex).

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He mentioned this on X (formerly known as Twitter) and then appealed against the strike:

After being published on my channel for over two years, YouTube put a strike on my channel for my video showing people how to set up Jellyfin on their NAS, for promoting "dangerous or harmful content" pic.twitter.com/xs6mbrOFv3
— Jeff Geerling (@geerlingguy) October 2, 2024

Fortunately, the appeal worked, and the video was re-instated on his YouTube channel, as you can see here:

But, the question remains:

Why did YouTube flag this as harmful content in the first place?

If harmless videos like these are being taken down, how many videos do you think may have been removed with partially active creators (unlike Jeff)?

They may not have seen it worth it to appeal against the strikes. Who knows?

YouTube's system to flag and take down videos, where the user takes control of their data, is concerning for sure 😓

Sure, it can be brushed off as a harmless mistake by the system. But, it is 2024, and it is too simple of a mistake on a big platform, isn't it?

YouTube (as per Nintendo's complaints) also cracked down on videos that revolved around emulation, this is also a form of preserving games/data:

I believe YouTube should protect such videos for its resourcefulness (as educational ones) and its use for taking control of our data.

💬 What do you think about YouTube's approach on taking down such videos? Is it a pattern you see? Or, is it just another harmless mistake by its automated systems?