PRAY: SermonIndex Youtube Channel Deleted without any notice by Youtube

sermonindex Jan 30, 2017

EDIT: Saints, share this news, it is the first large Christian site to report this:

Thousands Of Christian Sermons Deleted By YouTube Without Any Warning - https://hellochristian.com/6160-thousands-of-christian-sermons-deleted-by-youtube-without-any-warning

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Saints,

This was a shock to hear of a brother report this to me today. We trust the Lord in this. We had over 35 million views on the videos. There were embedded in 10,000's of places on the internet. And we had over 5000 videos uploaded.

https://www.youtube.com/user/sermonindex

This account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy against spam, deceptive practices, and misleading content or other Terms of Service violations.

Please pray that this situation can be remedied somehow, we cannot even access to the videos nor even find the copyright problems or violations.

If there are any brethren who are lawyer type brothers that can help with forms and legal language for this that could be beneficial just to try and ask youtube to understand what has happened and why.

Psalm 113:4 -New International Version (NIV)

The Lord is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.

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EDIT:

We are encouraging saints to report this information to christian news sites and christian advocy websites:

Our entire SermonIndex.net channel was
removed without nofiication a few days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/user/sermonindex

it says on that page: "This account has been terminated due to
multiple or severe
violations of YouTube's policy against spam, deceptive practices, and
misleading content or other Terms of Service violations."

On further investigation, submitting a form to youtube I received the
more vague reply of the reason why the account was deleted. At this
point I have to believe there is religious discrimination possibly
involved and this does not seem normal to have no email warning or
exact reason why the account is deleted.

The Channel was the 34,000 largest on youtube and probably one of the
largest Christian sermon channels with over 34 million views and 5000+
videos with 90,000 subscribers.

the reply from Youtube was:

RE: [3-9681000015517]
account-appeal@youtube.com
Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 3:23 PM

To: sermonindex@gmail.com
Cc: accounts-support@google.com

Hello,
Thank you for your account suspension appeal. We have decided to keep
your account suspended based on our Community Guidelines and Terms of
Service. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
for more information.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Team

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Some social media responses:

https://twitter.com/turnkit/status/826557501957083142

https://twitter.com/SomeoneHasToSay/status/826596325995249665

https://www.facebook.com/sermonindex/posts/10155872352729199

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=137916053384814&id=100014992608569

At this point I cannot but think this could be religious discrimation
and hate speech trigged by an attack from the enemy. We have been getting thousands to pray over this situation.

======

A

Anamosa41 Jan 30, 2017

This is sad to hear. I will be praying.

sermonindex Jan 30, 2017

look here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7ML7t5Puxg

S

Sree Jan 30, 2017

Prayed and will keep in prayers.

C

chetanch Jan 30, 2017

Praying brother.

Please check this link on how to appeal.

http://www.geteverything.org/fix-this-account-has-been-terminated-severe-violations-of-youtubes-policy/

sermonindex Jan 30, 2017

Thank you brother I have filed out that form with the right email now.

L

lovejt Jan 30, 2017

Lifting this up and joining you all.

D

davidkeel Jan 30, 2017

sorry to hear this news Greg, am praying for it to be resolved quickly.

D

dolfan Jan 30, 2017

Greg, I just saw this for the first time. I am no cooyright lawyer, but if you email me I will do as much as I can.

Praying that they reinstate. My thought is if they don't, it may be due to thinking of much of it as hate speech, based on the article another poster linked you to.

sermonindex Jan 30, 2017

Thanks brother, I got off the phone with a christian lawyer who gave basic advice. It seems unless Youtube responds and gives the reason we cannot know.

My mind goes towards christian persecution, LGBT rights and other possibilities if there is not a clear answer.

This could also be a spam attempt by an enemy of the gospel and therefore could somehow be reconcilled to get the account back up.

R

Ruach34 Jan 30, 2017

Brother Greg,

Can we do anything? Like contact YouTube someway and post a complaint or request the channel again? I think if the saints make a loud noise this might help??? Thoughts???

sermonindex Jan 30, 2017

Perhaps if youtube videos are posted about the sermonindex channel being deleted that could help. Sharing it on facebook, etc for prayer will be the key.

It is shocking, we only have around 70% of it backed up or so. I am going to look at seeing alternatives coming up to host the videos in a different places. Just 5000 videos to re-upload again might take a few years :)

We are thinking of self-hosting options and possibly Archive.org but even that is not 100% secure.

P

PaulWest Jan 31, 2017

Brother, do you think any of the speakers' ministries might have complained to YT about copyright infringement? That's the only thing I can think of. This is horrible.

sermonindex Jan 31, 2017

It appears this is an attack by the enemy. If several million people were viewing these videos and lives were being changed. Then the devil would get upset and attempt to shut down access to the message. At this point I don't know what know what could be done to reinstate the YouTube channel. I certainly pray it will be reinstated.

In the meantime brother Greg might want to look at Vimeo. Though it is second in viewing to YouTube. Their policy seem to be more flexible for allowing Christian messages.

Again just my thoughts.

Bro Blaine

D

drifter Jan 31, 2017

I really can't see any minister complaining about spreading one of his gospel messages. It was probably someone who dislikes Christ and His message (and messengers).

You should just make another account and call it preachingindex or something (sorry, lame joke)

D

dougr777 Jan 31, 2017

That's a great suggestion, let us know how we can continue to pray and serve

sermonindex Jan 31, 2017

Saints,

We might explore a few options for the future, even if the youtube comes re-enstatd, I think it would be good to have an entire backup and for a few brethren to start youtube channels mirroring all the content. So essentially uploading all the video sermons or most of them.

Perhaps if this is something you want to commit to, we could send a hard drive with most of the videos. Send an email to sermonindex@gmail.com

Vimeo would cost a monthly amount but if a brother felt led to lead that and pay for it, they could upload all the messages there also.

I will keep you updated on any news from youtube. Do continue to pray.

sermonindex Jan 31, 2017

Saints,

A few have committed to start new youtube channels and upload many sermonindex videos. If this interests you to help establish a youtube channel email me: sermonindex@gmail.com and I will give instructions.

May the Lord allow these messages to spread even further and glorify His Name.

here is an example of one brother starting a channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCvNnPVPAJlEyLTZQHW0ELw/featured

do SUBSCRIBE to it.

D

dolfan Jan 31, 2017

I shared an email with folks in our home group asking them to pray that YouTube reinstates. A sweet sister who, with her husband, a very interested in the efforts of groups like American Family Association and ACLJ asked --- and I will ask here, too --- if Greg thinks it a good idea to reach out to someone like AFA and see if they will help generate publicity and a call to action such as an email campaign to YouTube for SI.

I have no contacts with any such organization but if you could get AFA to say anything at all I think you might find a swell of support and at least some number of emails asking them to reinstate and standing for the benefit SI provides for believers here and abroad.

C

ccchhhrrriiisss Jan 31, 2017

Wow -- this is terrible!

Did they even contact you before they deleted your account? I had a friend who was given a "strike" (or something like that) because he had used copyrighted material in one of his videos. He said that they use some sort of system like that (two or three strikes before termination).

I thought that a particular video had to be flagged for a violation. I don't think that any of the ministers featured here at SermonIndex would target you for termination (and, if they did, that is very disappointing).

Is it possible that it has something to do with that recent minister who wanted his sermons removed had something to do with this?

I'm praying that this is resolved quickly and Alphabet/Google/YouTube will reinstate and restore your channel.