YouTube terminates xQc’s channel for copyright violations but he ‘doesn’t care’

Some would say it’s been a long time coming, others will mourn the loss of dozens of hours of content, but today it happened—YouTube terminated xQc’s channel, though, for his part, the star streamer doesn’t appear too concerned by the loss.

YouTube has taken drastic actions against popular Canadian streamer xQc this week, taking down his official channel with over two million subscribers. As suggested by xQc himself, the likely reason for the termination was several pending copyright violations. The theory presented by xQc on stream is that administrative delays in relation to copyright claims and counterclaims have resulted in his channel’s auto-termination.

“I think it’s because… the strikes were going to kick in, then I had a counterclaim,” he said, “and then it just didn’t kick in in time or something like that. It’s auto-termination.”

While having their YouTube channel terminated would be panic-inducing for most YouTubers, xQc couldn’t be less bothered, especially on the monetary side. During that same stream, he said that “YouTube is for the people” and he “doesn’t care” about the money he makes on the platform. Instead, The French-Canadian’s main concern is the content his audience will miss: “It sucks that we lose it for now because people don’t get their content, right? But revenue-wise, I haven’t looked twice at it.” Despite not being too worried on a personal level, xQc hopes it is indeed auto-termination and his channel will eventually “come back up.”

For anyone following xQc’s recent career, his YouTube channel being removed should come as no major surprise; the streamer has long been front and center on the ever-hot debate around react content and whether or not it’s stealing. XQc is often presented as an especially egregious example of a streamer who has a tendency to play another creator’s video, add minimal personal input and release the end result as a reaction video.

While it may look like YouTube has made its stance on the topic clear by terminating xQc’s main channel, that may not be the case. If the streamer’s auto-termination theory proves to be correct, then the channel could actually make a swift return to the platform without any substantial penalty coming xQc’s way. There’s always the possibility the streamer is totally wrong on that front though and his YouTube content is forever lost. You can never be quite sure with YouTube, so his fans will simply have to wait for a definitive answer.