It's a little known fact that Google doesn't employ humans any more. Over the last couple of years, they've been slowly phasing out the troublesome, saggy flesh sacks for cleaner, leaner automated algorithms. Unfortunately, those algorithms were created by troublesome, saggy flesh sacks - which is why they occasionally do stupid things like this. This morning, YouTube terminated the main account of the Yogscast , after mistakenly deciding - for reasons beyond mortal understanding - that it was being run by under-13s.
"We have been notified that the owner of the YouTube account BlueXephos is under 13 years of age," states a YouTube email , tweeted by the Yogscast's Lewis Brindley. "Any accounts found to be controlled by individuals under 13 will be terminated. We have terminated your account accordingly."
It's bizarre enough that the video sharing site would ban one of its most popular accounts for highly spurious reasons, but it's especially idiotic in this case - as a YouTube Partner, the owners are required to provide their proof of age. You would think that would exempt them from termination on the grounds of age.
Since the takedown, one of the last remaining humans has been alerted. The channel has now been reactivated , and is in the lengthy process of having its videos restored.
A bit of an embarrassing mistake for YouTube, and one of the more extreme examples of its often over-zealous takedown policies. At least, it would be embarrassing if the company hadn't long since purged any feelings from its mathematical hive-mind.
