Frogpants Studio is not on YouTube anymore. (Or, at least three of the Frogpants Studios YouTube accounts have been suspended.) Fans of the podcasts can still likely still find video episodes on Twitch. The removal appears to have something to do with Copyright Strikes.

On January 11, 2020, Scott Johnson (creator of Frogpants Studios) posted a tweet that said: “I got trolled, also eff youtube.” The tweet included three screenshots that provided more details.The first screenshot is from YouTube. It said:

We’d like to inform you that your channel The Morning Stream has been terminated because we concluded that it was linked to a channel that was disabled for having three or more Copyright strikes. You can find more information by checking the email inbox of your linked account.

Please be aware that you are prohibited from accessing, possessing or creating any other YouTube accounts unless the linked channel is reinstated. For more information about copyright strikes and terminations, please visit our Help Center.

The other two screenshots are also from YouTube, and have the same wording as the first one. The difference is one of them is about The Instance YouTube channel and the other is about the Scott Johnson YouTube channel.

On January 15, 2020, Scott Johnson tweeted additional screenshots that appear to indicate that in addition to having his podcast’s accounts suspended on YouTube, he has also been suspended from viewing videos on YouTube. (Assuming I’m understanding that correctly.)

There are a few things here that I find troubling. First, anyone who has ever put a video on YouTube knows that what I think of as “false positives” regarding Copyright Strikes are entirely possible. Second, it seems that YouTube is taking a “scorched earth” approach, and disabling not only YouTube accounts who have had three Copyright Strikes, but also any YouTube accounts they are linked to.

I highly recommend that podcasters who produce episodes in video format make sure they have copies of all those videos somewhere offline (perhaps on an external drive). That way, if YouTube disables your channel – you won’t lose all the work you created.