More than 20 Kurdish YouTube channels in the Kurdistan Region, shut down last month due to YouTube’s “linked channels” policy, have now been restored after widespread backlash. The reversal has brought relief to creators who lost both their income and their audiences overnight.
The controversy began when one channel received a third copyright strike for posting a Rubik’s cube tutorial. YouTube then terminated every other channel connected through the same AdSense account — despite those creators having no copyright violations of their own. Together, the accounts represented a community of over two million subscribers.
During the shutdown, Mabast King took the lead in establishing direct communication with YouTube’s support and policy teams, providing evidence, explanations, and appeals on behalf of Kurdish creators. His efforts helped clarify the misunderstanding that led to the mass terminations and played a decisive role in restoring all affected Kurdish YouTube channels.
The recent mass shutdown of Kurdish YouTube channels was seen as a major disaster by the Kurdish content creator community. Mabast Bahaadin (Mabast King) and Ahmad Aziz (Mr Shko) played key roles in appealing the decision and leading efforts to recover the affected channels. Both creators have confirmed that all the terminated channels have now been reinstated.
Mr Shko described the incident as “a 9/11 for Kurdish YouTubers” — emphasizing the scale of the shock and loss it caused — but expressed deep gratitude to everyone who helped in the recovery efforts, highlighting the teamwork and determination that led to success.
Mabast King, who established direct contact with YouTube during the crisis, said he plans to ask the platform to remove the rule that allows channel terminations based on shared AdSense connections, explaining that it poses a major risk to all creators. He emphasized that many innocent YouTubers could lose their channels unfairly and called on YouTube to protect creators instead of punishing them for technical or account-linking issues.
YouTube’s policy allows it to terminate “linked” channels, but this case has highlighted the disproportionate impact of the rule. While the community is celebrating the return of their accounts, the ordeal has underscored the vulnerability of creators whose livelihoods depend on a single platform.
