Freaked out, and not wanting to further incur the wrath of YouTube Orfalea makes a good part of his living via the channel he deleted a long list of other rough cuts archived in non-public fashion. The next morning, at at 5:42 AM, he received an official strike from the channel, which resulted in a one-week ban and left him two strikes away from removal under YouTube s three-strikes system. The catch? The strike was for one of the cuts he d already deleted.
I mean, it s like a thought crime, Orfalea says now, laughing in amazement. How could I possibly be sending striking misinformation or any kind of information with a video that was never public. And then I had already deleted on my own accord? YouTube was now going back in time to issue punishments for having once considered publishing transgressive video, in this case clips of things like Kory s Senate testimony.
A few weeks after that, Orfalea got word from YouTube that they were demonetizing his channel and threatening him with another strike over seven year-old material. The reason? The content violated YouTube s violent criminal organizations policy!
