All of Machinima's Videos Were Removed without Any Prior Warning

[Megalith]

RIP, Machinima? In a complete surprise, practically every single video from the classic gaming-related media network has been wiped clean on YouTube. Content creators reportedly had zero indication this was going to happen. According to Destructoid, “This comes as a result of a planned merger with Ellation, which is a part of Otter Media, which is actually a division of AT&T and WarnerMedia.”

Moving forward, it's anyone's guess as to what AT&T plans to do with the Machinima network. It's still a valuable channel, as it has approximately 12.4 million subscribers on YouTube. But this story isn't about the future. It's about the thousands of hours of original video game content that suddenly disappeared into the ether -- beloved series like Two Best Friends Play, Arby 'n' the Chief, Teenage Pokemon (which was created by Destructoid's own Jonathan Holmes), and so many more.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

:O
Haven't watched that channel in a while.
And just back from their YT page..... whole lotta private vids.....
Sure Linus will make a vid about it, maybe, since he stores all of his videos, IIRC.

 

[Nolan7689]

Fuuuuucked up

 

[joobjoob]

 

[BloodyIron]

Well that's a load of balls right there.

Deleting culture isn't cool.

 

[Jim Kim]

Note to self
If there is anything on youtube worth having, snag it and keep a local copy.

 

[TangledThornz]

WTF, hard to find episodes of Battlefield Friends now. I like watching the videos whenever I need a good chuckle.

 

[M76]

Nice reach. YouTube isn't a government agency. The 1st amendment doesn't apply. As a private enterprise they can ban, remove, and limit any content they see fit. If you don't like it, feel free to start joobjoobTube and make any rules you see fit. The brown shirts aren't coming, nothing to see here.

Youtube is a public space. They'd like you to believe freedom of speech doesn't apply there. But I doubt a court would see it that way when it is proven that they remove videos based on ideology and not their very loosely worded rules.

 

[M76]

Note to self
If there is anything on youtube worth having, snag it and keep a local copy.

I've been living by that rule since the dawn of the internet. And it doesn't apply just to youtube. But youtube have been getting worse recently for example they removed a channel that had hundreds of old educational and documentary videos, that aren't available anywhere else, and likely public domain.

 

[BloodyIron]

It's private servers on a private website. The entity has no legal obligation to comply to any one country's privacy laws.

Just like the idea that we "own" our Facebook accounts, and that Facebook owes us anything. Spoiler: it's their own website, and they can do whatever the fuck they want with it, whether we like to believe otherwise or not.

It's how the web works. It's someone else's servers. Not yours. Not government servers.

Youtube is a public space. They'd like you to believe freedom of speech doesn't apply there. But I doubt a court would see it that way when it is proven that they remove videos based on ideology and not their very loosely worded rules.