10 Biggest YouTubers Who are Permanently Banned

YouTube is a massive platform, and with that comes a lot of responsibility. Sometimes, creators cross the line, leading to permanent bans. Why does this happen? From copyright issues to serious violations of community guidelines, the reasons vary. Today, we’re diving into the stories of 10 of the biggest YouTubers who faced the ultimate consequence: a permanent ban. This list was inspired by Visual Venture’s video, which you can check out here.

We’re ranking these channels from smallest to largest based on their subscriber count at the time of their termination. A “permanent ban” means there’s no coming back – the channel is gone for good. Let’s get started.

Methodology

This list is ordered by subscriber count at the time of the ban, from smallest to largest. A permanent ban signifies that the channel cannot be recovered under any circumstances.

The List of Banned YouTubers

#10: It’s Owen (3.5 Million Subscribers)

It’s Owen was known for one thing: being incredibly unlikeable. His content formula included cringeworthy intros and shameless clickbait. Remember those awful intros? And who could forget the clickbait titles like “Charlie D’Amelio is dying today”? He even stooped to creating fake Mr. Beast scenarios.

However, things went too far after Technoblade’s passing. Owen uploaded a video titled “Mr Beast final goodbye to Technoblade.” The intro claimed it was Mr. Beast’s final goodbye and last time playing Minecraft with Technoblade. In reality, the video showed nothing more than Technoblade playing Minecraft and a completely fabricated Mr. Beast tweet.

The video racked up over 800,000 views in under 24 hours, but the backlash was intense. One top comment read, “The amount of disrespect this guy has is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Complete and utter shame.” Another user stated, “I have more respect for stains in a gas station urinal than I do for Owen.”

After being banned, Owen tweeted at Team YouTube: “My YouTube channel with 3.5 million Subs just got terminated please help me get it back I’m so depressed right now I don’t know what to do.” He then doubled down, stating, “I never received any Community guidelines strikes so I didn’t know what I was doing was violating the guidelines if I received just one strike that would have been enough for me to realize what I did was wrong please give me another chance I’m so depressed right now it’s my only income.”

Team YouTube responded, “We’ve reviewed your account and confirmed that your channel was correctly suspended due to explicit content. Note that you will not be able to access or create any other YouTube accounts.” Ouch. It seems that clickbaiting a tragedy was the final straw.

#9: SteveWillDoIt (4 Million Subscribers)

SteveWillDoIt gained popularity through eating challenges, prank videos, and, starting in 2021, sponsored gambling uploads. He was reportedly making over a million dollars a month from these sponsorships. Naturally, he leaned into this type of content, even picking up a sponsorship from Stake.

However, Steve made a critical error. YouTube has a peculiar rule: you can say the name of a gambling website, but you can’t show the URL with the “.com” included. In June 2022, Steve uploaded a gambling video where the URL was visible because his editor forgot to blur it.

Despite having no prior strikes, YouTube deleted all of Steve’s channels. According to Steve, “They called me the day of deletion and it was a girl, she seemed pretty stoked I was getting deleted and I was like seemed happy.” As a result, the NELK Boys were warned about filming with him, facing potential channel deletion if Steve appeared in their videos.

#8: LeafyIsHere (4.9 Million Subscribers)

Between 2013 and 2016, LeafyIsHere built a reputation for uploading edgy content that resonated with the YouTube zeitgeist. However, he took a hiatus before returning with a more controversial approach.

He uploaded a video titled “Content Nuke Pokemon man” in which he criticized Pokémon man, stating, “80% of Pokémon man streams is just her watching videos adding actually nothing to what she’s watching whatsoever.” He then uploaded 12 videos clickbaiting Pokémon man in the title and thumbnail while discussing unrelated topics like finance and investing.

Of his last 15 videos, 12 focused on Pokémon man. YouTube viewed this as harassment. Despite having no prior strikes, Leafy woke up to a permanent ban for violating the guidelines against creating content designed to harass, bully, or threaten.

Leafy tweeted, “Morning at Team YouTube my channel was suspended yesterday curious if there’s anything I could do to get it reinstated or if there’s any statement on this you could give on this.” However, he seemed unconcerned, stating, “If I am going to be banned, like so be it.”

Pokémon took to Twitter, stating, “I know I’m going to get asked this so I’d like to clarify I had nothing to do with Leafy’s ban,” adding, “don’t want my silence to leave room for assumptions.” Leafy’s ban felt inevitable to many. Perhaps the constant harassment violated YouTube guidelines.

#7: Khaby Lame Impersonators (4.84 Million Subscribers Banned First, then another with 5.2 Million)

Khaby Lame rose to fame on TikTok with his hilariously simple skits. When YouTube launched its Shorts program, Khaby began posting across both platforms. His content exploded, earning him over 800 million views and 2 million subscribers on YouTube in his first month. This was followed by another 800 million views the next month. After only four months, Khaby Lame had 2.4 billion views and 5.2 million subscribers.

Then came the ban. The problem? It wasn’t actually Khaby Lame. It was an impersonator reposting his content. This account gained 2.4 billion views before YouTube realized it. Another Khaby Lame impersonator with 4.84 million subscribers was banned just five days prior. Later, a third impersonator who gained over a 100 million views in days was also banned. As a result, Khaby created his own official channel, which is still active today. Impersonating someone else on social media can cause a lot of problems, and is a YouTube controversy.

#6: JayStation (5.4 Million Subscribers)

JayStation’s downfall began with a video titled “My girlfriend Alexia died Rest in paradise.” He claimed, “Last night we lost Alexia to a drug driver guys she was on the way to pick up something for our video we were making on our second Channel dream team she got it guys.”

He then uploaded another video visiting the spot where it supposedly happened. Only three days later, JayStation began exploiting his girlfriend’s death for engagement. “As you guys know my girlfriend Alexia just passed away in a tragic accident guys we’re doing the Ouija board Challenge on my dead girlfriend let’s smash the like button right now guys one like equals one prayer for Alexia guys rest in peace.”

This prompted Some Ordinary Gamers to investigate. They discovered that nobody by that name had died in the system. Alexia came forward, confirming that she hadn’t died and that Jay had faked her death. “Jay faked my death,” she stated.

Despite having posted years worth of unsavory content, faking his girlfriend’s death was a step too far. YouTube permanently deleted JayStation’s channel on March 12, 2021. JayStation responded by stating, “I didn’t even do anything wrong and I made videos all year getting no controversy.” When this failed to bring back his channel, he concluded, “I’m going to sue them crazy anyways I’m done nothing I can do now.”

#5: SevenSuperGirls (5.6 Million Subscribers)

SevenSuperGirls began in 2008 and featured seven girls who uploaded skits and day-in-the-life videos. By 2018, the channel had amassed over 5.6 billion views. However, things took a dark turn.

The channel was owned by Ian Riet. On August 17, 2018, he was accused of acting inappropriately with one of the SevenSuperGirls. Roughly seven months later, Riet pleaded guilty to the incident. He was sentenced to three months in prison and legally banned from working on YouTube. As a result, SevenSuperGirls was terminated on March 12, 2019.

#4: Kaelan94 (13 Million Subscribers)

Kaelan94, an Indonesian channel, gained over 13 million subscribers by employing an unethical strategy. They would find successful English-language videos, copy the thumbnail, add their own watermark, and upload it to Indonesian YouTube.

This changed in November 2019 when British YouTuber JT posted a video titled “YouTuber with 12 million Subs steals my video.” JT explained, “This channel had the audacity to steal my thumbnail put an emoji on it and then put their watermark on it…This YouTuber has stolen my thumbnail stolen all the information from my video they literally watched my video and took everything.” JT also highlighted that Kaelan94’s description included an email for copyright matters, implying they knew they were stealing content.

Indonesian media covered Kaelan94’s unethical practices, attaching a side-by-side comparison of the stolen videos. After being exposed, Kaelan94 apologized on Twitter, stating, “We from the entire extended family of Kalen Shana apologized to the YouTube channel JT for using ideas thumbnails and video prototyping without permission.”

JT and two other YouTubers who had their videos stolen simultaneously copyright struck Kaelan94, leading to the channel’s termination based on multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement.

#3: Oyuncak Ailesi (15 Million Subscribers)

Oyuncak Ailesi, a Turkish channel, began with children’s content featuring two kids and their father. However, they became involved in Elsagate. Elsagate was a 2016 phenomenon where YouTubers mixed kid-friendly characters like Spider-Man and Elsa with inappropriate themes.

These videos often depicted popular children’s characters in violent and even sexual scenarios. The motive was obvious: views. As more people watched, parents began to speak out, prompting advertisers to pull their ads from the site.

YouTube responded by removing over 150,000 Elsagate videos, turning off comments on more than 625,000 videos, and terminating over 270 accounts. Oyuncak Ailesi, Turkey’s biggest channel at the time, was one of them. This was a big deal for YouTube’s reputation and shows the importance of protecting children from harmful content.

#2: Minaj Paraha (20 Million Subscribers)

Minaj Paraha was one of hundreds of banned multi-million subscriber Indian shorts channels that employed the same strategy. They’d find successful Western videos, cut them into shorts, and provide a Hindi voiceover.

One channel owner explained, “I would pick any video and do a voice over I realized that if we do voiceovers in a short story then we’re bound to get views so I just stuck to that.” An article discussing these channels noted that eight such channels had been banned.

YouTube terminated Minaj Paraha’s channel.

#1: SuperJoJo (22 Million Subscribers)

SuperJoJo created nursery rhymes and children’s songs. They were accused of copying Cocomelon. A Reddit post referenced a Cartoon Brew article, stating SuperJoJo shamelessly free rides on Cocomelon success by closely cop and exploiting every possible element of the Cocomelon Channel sometimes even frame by frame.

In August 2021, Cocomelon sued SuperJoJo, claiming that SuperJoJo built its YouTube business by blatantly copying Cocomelon. One month later, YouTube terminated SuperJoJo’s channel due to multiple third-party claims of copyright infringement.

SuperJoJo’s ban lasted for two months before the channel was restored. However, the channel’s growth declined. In July 2023, a jury decided that BabyBus (SuperJoJo) committed copyright infringement and ordered them to pay Cocomelon $23.5 million. That same month, SuperJoJo wiped their channel clean, deleting everything.

Conclusion

From copyright infringement and harassment to criminal activity and impersonation, the reasons for YouTube bans are varied. These channels represent some of the biggest accounts to be permanently banned at the time of their termination. It’s a clear reminder of the importance of following YouTube’s guidelines and respecting copyright laws. Which of these bans surprised you the most?