how do I reach a human at YouTube?

[cellio]

A long time ago, I created a YouTube account to post a video to which I hold copyright. Later, Google bought YouTube. Time passed and I mostly forgot about that video.

Recently it's attracted attention and a troll. I would like to take it down.

Old YouTube accounts no longer work; you can't sign in with them. They have a way to claim old accounts, but it is not accepting the password I used (and recorded) at the time, nor any plausible variants. I can prove it's my account; I get email when somebody interacts with it (which is how I was alerted to the newer attention).

I've long since learned my lesson about relying on third-party media-hosting services (yeah, still have a lot of pictures hosted at LJ and Google that I haven't yet cleaned up on this journal). But I need to repair this error from the past.

I could file a DMCA takedown request, but that's the nuclear option and I don't know what repercussions it will have for the account owner, i.e. me.

Does anybody reading this know a better path? No, there's no "contact us" form, and their Twitter responder doesn't do anything other than send links to help I've already read.

Comments

[elbren]

dmca seems exactly right, as you are the content owner and you want youtube to not show the video any more

[cellio]

Might be. The form has dire warnings about how I am starting a legal proceeding, and my name will be displayed with some sort of "taken down by demand from..." language. As the owner I could just delete it, which I'd prefer if I could get anybody there to consider the request.

[madfilkentist]

DMCA is for copyright violations, and when you file a complaint, you have to state under oath that the video is violating your copyright, which it isn't. It sounds like the wrong move to me. Sorry I don't have a helpful alternative.

[cellio]

Yeah, it's one of those messy conditionals. *If* they say I can't have the account because it's not me, then this mysterious other account is violating my copyright. But if it's me, as I say it is, then past-me can't violate my copyright. Each of us can use the other's argument to counter the other's claims.

I just want them to give me control long enough to delete the video and then the account. :-(

[rhialto]

Ah, but one way of reasoning is that *Youtube* is showing the video in violation of your copyright. Which they are, since they have taken away control from the rightful owner. Which makes it perfectly sensible for you to file a complaint.

[juan_gandhi]

Can you apply GDPR, I wonder.

[cellio]

I don't live in the EU and Google/Youtube isn't headquartered there, so presumably not.

[https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/hsFMttp]

Hi Monica -

While I'm *fairly* confident you'll have been doing some websearching about this, it seems you're not alone. This is a support thread from 2019 from someone in your situation

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/9494551?hl=en&msgid=9494551

And some similar things in here ("gaia" link??):

https://yttalk.com/threads/how-to-recover-a-very-old-youtube-account.283615/#post-2307458

There are one or two links in there that might be illuminating, even if unable to help you achieve your goal here. Hope it helps, all the same!

David
--
Edinburgh, UK

[cellio]

Thanks David. Pity that thread is locked so I can't add info. The claim that having access to the linked email fixes the problem is incorrect.

[hudebnik]

Google has an "account recovery escalation" procedure, which I can walk you through by phone or chat or e-mail or something. Due to COVID, they're somewhat less responsive than usual, and prioritizing public figures, but the procedure is still there. Private-message me.

You can start at http://g.co/recover; I suspect you've already tried everything on that page, but I have to confirm that you've done so before going to the next step.