VICTORY: YouTube Restores User Who Punched Annoying Feminist In Red Dead Redemption 2

Following a backlash for its decision to ban the popular YouTuber for his Red Dead Redemption 2 video, YouTube restored the account and its videos the same afternoon.

Early this morning, YouTube banned Shirrako, the YouTuber behind the viral “Red Dead Redemption 2 – Beating Up Annoying Feminist” video, claiming the video was an incitement to violence. Immediately the YouTuber took to Twitter to point out the absurdity in his ban.

YouTube closed by channel because I killed a female NPC in #RDR2
They said It promoted violence.

You spend the entire games murdering men and no one cares, punch a woman and you get banned, are you out of your mind @YouTube @TeamYouTube @YTCreators @YongYea @JimSterling

— Shirrako (@ShirrakoGaming) November 7, 2018

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The video showed the player walking through the game’s environment and stumbling upon a Woman’s Suffrage activist protesting loudly. After making a scripted sarcastic quip doubting the utility of voting, the player turns to the female NPC and punches her in the face before running away.

WATCH:

After a massive backlash from the YouTube community and coverage from Big League Politics, YouTube eventually relented and restored the channel almost 12 hours after it first banned the channel, instead placing age restrictions on the video in question and restoring the rest of the 8,000 videos previously deleted when the channel was banned.

As the YouTube community attempted to get answers regarding the ban, hours passed with no response from Google. Eventually, well known YouTuber Keemstar made a video asking for answers and posted it to Twitter, addressing his message to four accounts belonging to YouTube departments and senior management, including Global Head of Gaming Ryan Wyatt, and CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Wyatt eventually sent a tweet in response, notifying Keemstar that Shirrako’s channel would be restored with an added age restriction on the Red Dead Redemption 2 videos.

Keem, thanks for your input. This was flagged this AM to me. The videos were re-reviewed, and we determined they should be age restricted, as they were not Community Guideline violations. The channel will be reinstated. All 8,000 videos will be rolled back to his channel.

— Ryan Wyatt (@Fwiz) November 7, 2018

At the same time, YouTube notified Shirrako his channel had been restored.

Thanking those who rallied to his defense on Twitter, Shirrako referred to YouTube’s previous decision to ban his channel as an act of “corporate censorship” and described it as a “false decision”.

The channel is back.https://t.co/r6JLeiGBbH
Thanks to @KEEMSTAR @Fwiz @Boogie2988 @ColossalisCrazy @ChampChong @Veeh_Ro @TheQuartering and everyone else who showed support, love you all! pic.twitter.com/6QMP6Ajxux

— Shirrako (@ShirrakoGaming) November 7, 2018

Still, Shirrako believes his case may represent a larger problem for the Big Tech platform, telling other Twitter users he “got lucky” by having his ban reversed.

The fact that this happened is still a problem, I hope no other content creator goes through this, I got lucky!

— Shirrako (@ShirrakoGaming) November 7, 2018

YouTube has been under fire for over a year since it began its practice of demonetizing content that, according to YouTube, may be considered objectionable to advertisers. It progressed over the last year to include outright banning of content the platform maintains violates its guidelines against hate speech and advocating violence, including the infamous ban of Alex Jones’ YouTube channel.

Most recently, YouTube blocked Right Side Broadcasting from streaming rallies during President Donald Trump’s last minute push during the 2018 midterm elections.