YouTube Shadow Ban

Observations suggest that deleting a large number of videos in a short period (for example, more than three in a row) can cause a channel to lose its accumulated standing and attract the algorithm’s attention. This resets view history and rankings, undermining the channel’s “trust.”
Users on forums confirm that removing old videos often negatively impacts future growth: watch hours disappear, traffic drops, and the channel can effectively get “flagged” by the system. The recommended approach is to hide unwanted videos by setting them to private rather than deleting them, so metrics are preserved.

If a relatively unknown channel suddenly changes its name, description, country, or language, it can trigger a security or spam check. YouTube has long been combating mass account takeovers by spammers, so such actions — often associated with malicious activity — are monitored automatically.
A channel that makes multiple unusual changes at once may be flagged for manual review by the Trust & Safety teams. For example, 90% of hijackers immediately change the country or language to high-revenue regions and rename the channel — patterns the system is aware of.

If a channel uploads videos that are blocked worldwide (for example, due to copyright or prohibited content) three times in a short period, YouTube may view this as a sign of bad faith and limit the channel’s reach. A single Content ID strike is usually manageable, but repeated violations negatively impact the channel’s standing.

If you grant channel access (as a manager or administrator) to a user who already has violations or strikes, your channel’s reputation can also suffer. There is evidence that linking a banned AdSense account or an account with a history of spam can lead to restrictions — the system treats you as associated with a violator.

This point is undoubtedly relevant: for several years, YouTube has deliberately reduced the reach of content that doesn’t directly violate rules but is considered harmful or misleading. In 2019, the company publicly announced efforts to combat “borderline” content — the algorithm stopped recommending videos featuring conspiracy theories, misinformation, extremism, and similar topics. The result was a 70% drop in views from non-regular viewers. In effect, a form of “shadow banning” for questionable videos exists at the platform policy level. This mechanism is confirmed by the company itself, although in official terminology it is referred to as “demotion in recommendations,” not a ban.

YouTube’s algorithms are designed to detect spam and manipulation attempts. A practical example involves a creator who tried to rapidly scale up their activity: they created a dozen new channels and uploaded dozens of videos across them in just two days (the same videos in different languages). After that, all the new videos received zero views — the system clearly flagged this activity as suspicious and stopped showing the content to the audience.
The creator concluded that the spam filters had kicked in: too many similar uploads in a short period. This case (detailed in the table below) confirms that mass posting and content duplication can lead to shadow-limited reach.

There are no official statements from YouTube on this, but numerous creator reports point to negative consequences from such actions. On the BlackHatWorld forum, experienced YouTubers note that deleting a large number of old videos can “kill” a channel — accumulated watch time is lost, rankings drop, and sometimes the channel never regains its former traffic.
It is believed that the algorithm may interpret mass deletions as a channel reset or anomaly and temporarily stop promoting the content. Google does not officially label this as a violation, but even promotion experts advise against deleting content unless absolutely necessary. Instead, they recommend hiding videos to preserve the channel’s “weight.”
Thus, the information about shadow banning due to deletions is partially confirmed: while there may not be a direct punitive mechanism, algorithmically the channel’s reach can indeed be set back in recommendations.

YouTube and Google policies prohibit creating a new account if your previous one was banned — this violates the Terms of Service. In practice, Google tracks such attempts using various parameters. For example, if a channel that violated rules was monetized through AdSense, the AdSense account is also blocked. Trying to link the same AdSense account to another channel will cause issues: the new channel won’t be able to enable monetization or may face sanctions as well.
Similarly, having banned users manage a channel can harm its “reputation.” While YouTube doesn’t disclose the specifics, the idea of cross-account connections is supported by Google’s general moderation logic: violator accounts are isolated, and all linked accounts can be affected.

This factor is less obvious. There’s no evidence that simply lacking an avatar or description leads to sanctions. It’s more likely an indirect signal: reputable channels usually fill out their information, while one-off channels or spam bots often skip branding.
When combined with other factors (e.g., posting serial content without descriptions, disabled comments, and an empty profile), the algorithm may consider the channel low-quality or fake and limit its visibility. However, having an empty “About” section alone is unlikely to trigger a shadow ban. Thus, the relevance of this criterion is low, but maintaining a complete profile is still recommended.

This aligns with YouTube’s official position: if a channel’s videos receive frequent complaints, dislikes, or “Don’t Recommend” signals, their ranking drops. The algorithm takes audience dissatisfaction into account.
Complaints about rule violations are especially significant — even if the videos aren’t removed by moderators, numerous reports signal the system to reduce their visibility until the issue is resolved. Following the rules and avoiding actions that generate mass negative feedback is therefore well-advised.