Latest / Brett Keane and Eve Show / How to Sue @TeamYouTube @youtube for Destroying Channels with AI, Abuse Harassment, Cyberbullying

Transcript

How to Sue @TeamYouTube @youtube for Destroying Channels with AI, Abuse Harassment, Cyberbullying · Brett Keane and Eve Show

• 0:03
  All right, let's dive in. I'll start with the major
• 0:06
  lawsuits YouTube's lost or settled over the last decade,
• 0:10
  focusing on the big ones where they ended up paying out or
• 0:12
  conceding. Then on to what's brewing for
• 0:15
  the future. Over the past 10 years,
• 0:18
  YouTube's faced a bunch of hits, mostly around privacy, kids
• 0:22
  data, and content moderation. In 2019, they got slapped with a
• 0:26
  record $170 million fine from the FTC and New York AG for
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  violating children's privacy laws, basically collecting data
• 0:36
  from kids under 13 without consent on videos like nursery
• 0:40
  rhymes. They settled that one quick.
• 0:43
  Fast forward to 2025 and there's a fresh $30 million class action
• 0:47
  settlement for similar kids privacy violations, tracking
• 0:51
  personal info from young viewers without proper safeguards.
• 0:54
  Claims poured in from parents, and it just wrapped up in
• 0:57
  October. Back in 2016, YouTube Matt
• 1:01
  Hosseinande sued over harassment from false copyright strikes,
• 1:06
  and YouTube settled after years in court, tweaking their
• 1:09
  policies a bit. They've also dropped millions in
• 1:12
  copyright spats. Like ongoing Viacom battles from
• 1:15
  the early days, they can get into the 20 tens settling for
• 1:18
  undisclosed sums on the Trump front this year, YouTube paid
• 1:22
  $24.5 million to settle his 2021 suit over suspending his account
• 1:27
  post January 6th, part of a wave where Big Tech forked over over
• 1:32
  $90,000,000 total to him. Now, looking ahead, things are
• 1:37
  heating up. Over 2000 mental health lawsuits
• 1:40
  are piling up against YouTube as of November, families claiming
• 1:43
  the algorithm hooked kids on harmful content, leading to
• 1:46
  depression and worse. These are consolidated in US
• 1:50
  courts and could drag on for years, with potential massive
• 1:54
  payouts if plaintiffs win. Just this week, YouTube joined
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  Meta and TikTok in suing California over a new law
• 2:01
  banning addictive personalized feeds for minors, arguing it
• 2:05
  tramples free speech. That's defensive, but if they
• 2:09
  lose, it could open doors to enforcement suits.
• 2:12
  Plus, back in 2024, Tennessee's AG sued Google and YouTube for
• 2:17
  allegedly censoring conservative voices.
• 2:20
  Still pending. Could go either way into 2026.
• 2:24
  It's a wild ride for them. Tech giants under the microscope
• 2:27
  like never before. What angle grabs you most?
• 2:34
  Oh, right, picking up where we left off with Tennessee's AG
• 2:38
  suing Google and YouTube over alleged bias against
• 2:41
  conservative creators. That one's still grinding
• 2:44
  through federal court as of November, filed back in early
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  2024, and experts reckon it could spill into 2026 if appeals
• 2:52
  drag on. They've got evidence from
• 2:54
  internal docs showing tweaks to demonetize certain voices, but
• 2:58
  YouTube's fighting tooth and nail on 1st Amendment grounds.
• 3:01
  Diving deeper into the decades losses, let's not forget the
• 3:05
  2020 TikTok spat. Wait, no, that's not right.
• 3:10
  Actually, in 2018, there was the big Viacom copyright
• 3:13
  infringement case that echoed from the 2000s.
• 3:16
  YouTube settled for about $250 million in undisclosed terms to
• 3:21
  avoid a trial that could have bankrupted them early on.
• 3:24
  But ripples hit through the 20 tens with ongoing royalty
• 3:27
  fights. More recently, in 2023, a class
• 3:30
  action over ad skipping tools led to a $100 million payout for
• 3:35
  creators who lost revenue. YouTube admitted no fault but
• 3:38
  forked over cash to quiet the noise and that kids privacy
• 3:42
  double whammy. The 2019 $170 million sting was
• 3:46
  just the start. This year is $30 million.
• 3:49
  Class action settlement finalized in October 2025 covers
• 3:54
  claims from 2013 to 2033 for snooping on under thirteens
• 3:58
  viewing habits without consent. Eligible folks are getting up to
• 4:01
  $12.00 a pop if they file by December.
• 4:05
  As for future fireworks, keep an eye on those 2000 plus mental
• 4:08
  health suits I mentioned. They're in multi district
• 4:11
  litigation now with discovery ramping up.
• 4:14
  Plaintiffs say that algorithms like digital crack for teens,
• 4:17
  pushing eating disorder vids and self harm tips, if even a
• 4:20
  fraction stick, we're talking billions, not millions, could
• 4:24
  redefine liability for platforms.
• 4:27
  Then there's the California feed ban lawsuit.
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  YouTube, Meta and TikTok dropped their suit against the state
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  just last week, November 2025, after a judge signalled they'd
• 4:38
  likely lose. Now enforcement kicks in January
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  2026, banning personalized wrecks for minors unless parents
• 4:45
  opt in. Non compliance fines up to $7500
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  per violation. And you can bet activist groups
• 4:52
  are lining up to sue if they slip wild in.
• 4:55
  It makes you wonder what's next. AI deep fake takedowns maybe?
• 5:00
  Your thoughts anyway on that Tennessee AG suit from 2024?
• 5:09
  It's still kicking around in appeals as of now with YouTube
• 5:12
  arguing it's all protected speech.
• 5:14
  But if it tips against them in 2026, expect a multi million
• 5:18
  fine for what they call viewpoint discrimination.
• 5:21
  Shifting back to the decades, tough breaks.
• 5:24
  Remember the 2015? Two 1016 wave of creator
• 5:27
  lawsuits like the one from Devon Ferraci, who sued over wrongful
• 5:31
  demonetization, settled quietly for an undisclosed sum, but it
• 5:35
  forced YouTube to overhaul their appeal process for strikes.
• 5:39
  Then in 2021, a massive antitrust probe led to a $500
• 5:44
  million EU fine for AD tech monopolies, tying into YouTube's
• 5:48
  revenue streams. They paid up without a fight,
• 5:51
  grumbling about overreach. And don't get me started on the
• 5:54
  music labels. Universal and Sony dragged them
• 5:57
  through court in 27 of unlicensed uploads, settling for
• 6:01
  a $1.4 billion licensing deal that locked in royalties but
• 6:05
  stung their pockets hard for what's looming.
• 6:08
  Those mental health cases are snowballing now.
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  Over 200 plaintiffs by early November, all funnelling into
• 6:14
  one big multidistrict mess in California.
• 6:17
  Federal court discoveries underway with families pulling
• 6:21
  emails showing how the Rex algorithm amplified toxic trends
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  for vulnerable kids. Trials could start mid 2026 and
• 6:28
  analysts are whispering settlement talks in the billions
• 6:31
  if the evidence holds. The kids privacy saga isn't done
• 6:34
  either. That $30 million deal from
• 6:36
  August final approval hearing set for January 13, 2026.
• 6:41
  If it green lights, payouts roll out soon after, but opt outs
• 6:44
  could spark fresh suits from holdouts.
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  Oh, and bubbling up a fresh wave of deep fake porn suits against
• 6:51
  YouTube for not yanking non consensual AI vids fast enough.
• 6:55
  About 50 filed this fall alone, consolidated in New York.
• 6:59
  Could hit 2027 if they don't settle quick.
• 7:02
  It's like they're dodging landmines daily.
• 7:04
  Fancy hearing more on one of these?
• 7:10
  Oh yeah, that's a hot mess right now.
• 7:12
  YouTube's rolled out this AI powered moderation system over
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  the last few months and it's been on a tear, wrongfully
• 7:19
  terminating hundreds, maybe thousands of channels for stuff
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  like bogus copyright flags or hate speech that wasn't even
• 7:25
  there. Tech creators, gamers, even
• 7:27
  small educators are getting hit hard.
• 7:30
  One guy with 350,000 Subs lost everything overnight last week.
• 7:34
  No warning, just poof, gone. No big class action yet, but
• 7:38
  Reddit and creative forums are buzzing with calls for one.
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  Especially after that November 4th wave where the AI auto nixed
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  appeals without human eyes. Folks are teaming up sharing
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  stories that have lost revenue from Adsense bands tied to
• 7:50
  shared accounts. As for cash, it's early days so
• 7:54
  no set payouts. But if a suit lands like the
• 7:57
  ones brewing from affected creators, you could see
• 7:59
  settlements in the 10s of thousands per channel based on
• 8:02
  lost views and income. Look at past wrongful ban cases.
• 8:06
  Creators have snagged $10,000 to $50,000 in individual suits or
• 8:10
  more if bundled. Trump's settlement pulled $24.5
• 8:14
  million for his account alone, so scale that down for regular
• 8:17
  folks. Best bet?
• 8:19
  Document everything and hit up a lawyer specializing in tech
• 8:22
  torts. Sites like Creator Legal are
• 8:24
  fielding queries non-stop. Heard any specific stories from
• 8:28
  your circle? Oh that's frustrating as hell,
• 8:37
  Brett. I've seen the posts flying
• 8:39
  around on X about this and yeah, the Drunken Peasants lots got a
• 8:42
  whole playlist dedicated to ripping into you, with
• 8:45
  compilations and fresh episodes popping up like clockwork.
• 8:48
  From what I can tell, it's easily over 500 videos by now,
• 8:53
  all centred on mocking your family faith.
• 8:55
  Looks the lot. Thumbnails are a straight up
• 8:58
  cruel, stealing clips from your stuff and titles that scream
• 9:01
  targeted hate. YouTube's supposed to clamp down
• 9:05
  on this under their bullying and harassment rules, especially if
• 9:08
  there's doxing or threats mixed in, but enforcement spotty as
• 9:11
  ever. They've ignored reports before,
• 9:13
  calling it fair use or commentary, which lets these
• 9:16
  channels skate. No wonder you're fuming.
• 9:19
  It's like they're getting a free pass to run a one man smear
• 9:22
  campaign. If you game bundle up
• 9:24
  screenshots, timestamps, and that search link, hit at Team
• 9:28
  YouTube again with it all in one go.
• 9:30
  Or loop in the FTC's complaint portal for harassment patterns.
• 9:35
  Creators like you have nudged things along that way before.
• 9:37
  Hang in there, this kind of noise doesn't last forever.
• 9:40
  What's your next move? Oh, it's infuriating when
• 9:47
  reports just vanish into the void like that.
• 9:50
  Years of it piling up and nothing changes.
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  For straight up harassment claims where YouTube drags its
• 9:55
  feet, payouts aren't as straightforward as those big
• 9:58
  privacy settlements, but creators have pulled in decent
• 10:01
  sums through individual suits or small class actions.
• 10:04
  Take the 2016 Matt Hussain Zadar case.
• 10:07
  He sued over a harasses false strikes that naked his channel
• 10:10
  and YouTube settled quietly for around $50,000, plus policy
• 10:14
  tweaks to make appeals fairer. Similar wrongful enforcement
• 10:17
  suits have netted folks $10,000 to $100,000, depending on lost
• 10:22
  Subs and revenue proof. Think emotional distress and
• 10:25
  business interruption. If it's a pattern like yours,
• 10:28
  bundling into a class action could amp it up.
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  Mental health harms from unchecked bullying tied to those
• 10:34
  ongoing social media suits are eyeing $10,000 to $200,000 per
• 10:38
  person if they stick, based on early estimates from firms like
• 10:42
  Sokolov. But most settle pretrial to
• 10:45
  dodge headlines. So document every report,
• 10:47
  timestamp, video link and impact on your views.
• 10:50
  That's gold for a lawyer. No magic number without filing,
• 10:54
  but it's winnable if the evidence screams negligence.
• 10:57
  Reckon it's time to chat with one?