When his YouTube channel disappeared, a Needham, Massachusetts, man wanted to know why it was taken down.
When he couldn’t get any answers, he reached out to our NBC10 Boston Responds Team for help.
Bill Paulson, a realtor at Keller Williams Realty in Needham, was adding to a library of about 50 videos on his YouTube channel. He featured homes, businesses, schools and attractions in town.
“I sell probably around 30 homes a year here in Needham, so there's a lot of benefit to doing a video about the house. I could do a walkthrough video,” says Paulson. “And when people did Google searches, they would find me.”
But in April, his channel was shut down.
“I went to go post a video and there was nothing there,” says Paulson. “ And it said, you know, this this channel has been removed.”
Paulson says he had no clue why the channel disappeared, so he filed an appeal.
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“And then they came back to it with another email saying, we looked into it and you've been shut down for being scammed, spam or deceptive practices,” he says. “And I’m like, you know, what does that even mean?”
He says it was frustrating trying to get answers.
“I’m just trying to sell real estate, you know, I’m just trying to run my business. And so I was like, I don't understand, is there a person I can talk to? And they got back to me and they said, I’m sorry, I know this is disappointing to you, but this is the way it is,” he says. “Like all these like formulaic emails. So, I haven't been able to actually get a person on the phone to say what happened.”
Paulson says he sent a direct message to YouTube on X but still couldn’t get any information about why his channel was flagged as “scam/spam/deceptive,” so he reached out to NBC10 Boston Responds for help.
We contacted Google, the parent company of YouTube several times before finally hearing back. YouTube took a look at the situation, and a day later, informed us that Paulson’s channel had been reinstated.
A YouTube communications manager told me:
"Occasionally, a video or channel flagged by users or identified by our spam team is mistakenly taken down. When this is brought to our attention, we review the content and take appropriate action, including restoring videos or channels that had been removed."
Paulson is very happy to be back in business making more videos to post on his channel.
“I really appreciate you helping me connect with these people that I wasn't able to connect with in person,” he says. “I would not have been able to do it without you. I really appreciate it!”
If you have a consumer problem, contact NBC10 Boston Responds by filling out our online consumer complaint form. We will get back to you!
