But what a year 2020 was... right? A real roller coaster of emotions and, at times, unexplained shit.

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We recently shared some of the obstacles we faced during the COVID-19 pandemic as an event company. Now we are very excited to tell you about the issue we had with YouTube, the termination of our official channel (which was our main content platform) and an exciting project on the horizon.

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Bottom line. One hot quarantine day, after apparently having violated many community guidelines repeatedly, Youtube, without warning, decided to close our channel. Yes, our channel with over 10k subscribers.

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Ouch.

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But hey, we're Fuckup Nights! We have to make the good out of the bad, right? That's what resilience is all about.

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Although we were never 100% clear on what caused this, this fuck up led us to do some research on how video platforms work. We now have a better understanding of the implications and regulations involved in creating audiovisual content for social networks.

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So, whether you have plans to start your own YouTube venture or know someone who is already at it, here are some facts and learnings that we hope will be helpful.

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Don't do good things that look bad

Common sense, basically. Avoid using words that, out of context, can be misinterpreted.

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Sensitive content may be allowed on YouTube and other platforms, but only if the context justifies the posting. Adding detailed information to your videos will help users find them and understand your message and intent. After all, this information will also help the YouTube team to review your video in case it gets flagged by the algorithms.

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Here is a list of things to consider before publishing your content: (Many of them may seem obvious, but you never know)

1.- Sex and Nudity

You should be aware that the content you create may be sensitive to humans or bots (even both!). In our particular case, the word Fuck in our branding and the slogan "no filters" could have been misunderstood by the algorithms and resulted in our channel being flagged for sexual content, hate speech or profanity.(Oops...)

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A possible Fuckup:

We broadcast live an event called WOMEN WITHOUT FILTERS (oops?)

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These types of names can raise a red flag, especially when you invite your audience to visit an external site with the caption "see more".

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Also consider that cultural differences may cause some people to manually report your videos... even as a joke. If you're not sure if something might be offensive, Youtube recommends censoring (pixelating, deleting or muting) images and sound (we know, censorship sucks).

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2.- Hate speech, harassment and vulgar language

Youtube persecutes and punishes content and comments that use hateful, offensive or vulgar language (oops, we did it again...).

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Keep this in mind and try to put an accurate description on all your videos, especially on content that deals with sensitive topics such as discrimination, harassment or fraud.

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3.- Criminal organizations + dangerous and damaging situations

To keep the community safe and free from any physical and emotional harm, YouTube pursues and punishes content creators who may teach people how to engage in criminal or dangerous activities, and has zero tolerance for this type of content.

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Just please be very careful with the use of misleading titles, especially with sensitive topics. We learned this first hand.

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A possible Fuckup:

• We publish the story of a speaker under the title of: THIS IS HOW I WAS PART OF AN ONLINE CASINO SCAM

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It is important to add that posting content selling or promoting certain illegal or regulated products is not allowed. It doesn't matter if some of these activities are legal in your country. That's why videos are required to have a clear title and description, indicating the intent of the content. This helps Youtube to quickly* review the content and you don't have to pay for the bad practices of other content creators.

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*not always

Spam, copyright and abuse behavior in live transmissions.

We all agree that piracy is not good... right? Well, we may be committing piracy without knowing it.

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With the 2020 quarantine, many people started creating more and more live streams, but very few were aware that they might be streaming content that did not belong to them. We need to be aware of copyright infringement when playing music. To keep it simple, if you want to play it safe, we recommend using music from licensed music libraries for free use, especially if you intend to monetize your content.

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It is also important to mention that Youtube has some restrictions on content that invites people to leave the Youtube platform for some other site. This is something that illegal piracy sites often do, so keep that in mind!

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In summary, here's what you should keep in mind:

• ALWAYS UPLOAD VIDEOS WITH A CLEAR TITLE.
• GENERATE A SHORT DESCRIPTION FOR YOUR VIDEO. EXPLAIN THE "WHY" OF THE CONTENT, MAKING YOUR INTENTION AND PURPOSE CLEAR.
• AS AN EXTRA, YOU CAN ADD A WARNING AT THE BEGINNING OF A VIDEO WITH SENSITIVE OR ADULT CONTENT.
• IF YOU THINK THAT CERTAIN TYPES OF CONTENT ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUTUBE, IT MAY BE BEST TO CONSIDER ANOTHER PLATFORM.
• DO NOT SPAM
• DO NOT VIOLATE COPYRIGHTS

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And although we lost many subscribers, this bad experience pushed us to take that next step we wanted so much: our own platform.

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A platform of our own where, although they will still be hosted on Youtube (for the time being), we are free to write and name failure without censorship and without being hidden in searches by algorithms.

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So we are pleased to announce that Fuckup Watch is now available, bookmark it in your browser and enjoy! There's exciting content and much more to come. Check it out and let us know what you think.

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We want to thank you again for being part of this new stage in the movement.

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