How to report a video on YouTube

Preliminary information

Before explaining to you how to report a video on YouTube I need to provide you with some preliminary information which will be useful for you to implement the indications contained in the next paragraphs. The first thing I want to tell you is that, in order to send the YouTube team a report regarding a certain content, you must be registered on the site and logged in to it. This means that, before taking any other step, you must subscribe to YouTube (if you have not already done so) and log in using your account credentials (which are the same as the Google / Gmail account).

Once you have logged into your YouTube account, you will be able to report content that you believe violates the terms and conditions of use of the service (which you can read in detail by going to this page). Before reporting a video on YouTube, therefore, you must be reasonably sure that the video in question has the conditions to be reported, perhaps because infringes copyright or why promotes illegal activities (e.g. use of drugs, preparation of terrorist attacks, etc.) or, again, has unsuitable content (eg scenes of nudity, scenes of cruel violence, etc.).

Therefore, I recommend that you use the content reporting function on YouTube only when it is appropriate to do so: do not report videos / channels of others only to make jokes in bad taste or to implement spite against those who have made you a rude. Understood?

Now that we've clarified these aspects, I'd say we can actually delve into the heart of the tutorial and take a closer look at how to submit reports to YouTube about content that allegedly violates the platform's terms of use.

Report a YouTube video for copyright infringement

Let's start by seeing how to report a copyright infringing video on YouTube. I already anticipate that reporting content that infringes copyright is not complicated at all. All that needs to be done, in fact, is to go to the appropriate page set up by YouTube to allow private users and companies to report copyright violations perpetrated to their own detriment by describing the problem and specifying the URL of the video (or videos, if more contents are subject to this type of violation).

Just a small clarification before starting: the procedure illustrated in this chapter is valid whether you decide to act from the computer or from a smartphone and tablet. In the latter case, however, it is not possible to act from the YouTube app but from the browser of your device (eg Chrome for Android or Safari for iOS).

To proceed, then, connected to this page on the YouTube site, press the button I'm not a robot (if a message appears inviting you to perform the security check) and select one of the options that correspond to the type of violation you are interested in reporting, in your case Copyright infringement.

Next, you must indicate who is affected by the violation by placing a check mark on one of the options in the box Copyright Infringement - Who Affected?: I!, if the violation was done to your detriment; My company, my organization or my client, if the violation was done to the detriment of your company, your organization or your customer or Another copyright owner, if the violation affects a third party (in this case, a message will appear inviting you to contact the person in question, who will have to send the report independently).

At this point, insertionVideo url which is the subject of the violation, describe the work that you believe has been violated by choosing one of the options in the menu Select an item and fill in the mandatory text fields that appear in the box Videos to remove. If there are more videos to report, press the button (+) Add another video and repeat the steps I indicated in the previous lines.

Now the time has come to provide the information concerning you or your company (based on the choice you made previously), then fill out the form Tell us about yourself specifying yours name, your mailing address, your number of phone, fax, etc. Then, check all the boxes located inside the box at the bottom to confirm that you are acting in good faith and that you are actually the owner of the copyrighted material and, finally, affix your digital signature specifying yours name e last name in the box below and click on the blue button Submit a complaint located in the lower left corner of the page.

At this point, your request has been sent to YouTube, which will consider it. If it ascertains that your report concerns an actual infringement of copyright, it will certainly remove the video you promptly reported from the platform.

Report a video on YouTube for appropriate content

You came across a video that features inappropriate content and want to report the incident to YouTube? In this case, you can do it simply by resorting to the function Report of the service. After identifying the video in question, presses on the symbol (...) located below it (if you are operating from the web version of YouTube) or in the upper right corner of its playback window (if you are operating from the official app of the service for Android or iOS) and, in the menu that opens, select the item Report.

In the box that appears on the screen, then put the check mark on the type of inappropriate content you want to report (eg. Content of a sexual nature, Violent or repulsive content, Content that is offensive or hateful, Harmful or dangerous actions, etc.) and confirm the operation by pressing once again on the item Report.

By doing so, YouTube will receive your report and, if the content actually violates the terms of use of the service, it will be promptly removed from the platform.

What to do in case of problems

You have found problems when reporting a video to YouTube? In this case, I suggest you try to contact the support service of the famous video sharing platform using one of the support channels among those available. Here are the main ones.

• Helpline - contact Google city (the company that manages YouTube) by calling the number 02 36618300 which, at the time of writing, is available Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 17:00.
• Fax assistance - if you want to send a message to YouTube by fax, you can do so using the number + 1 650-253-0001. Please note, however, that the message must be written in English, otherwise it is unlikely to be taken into consideration by the team working on YouTube development.
• Assistance by mail - if you want to send a message to the YouTube headquarters, you can do so using the YouTube address, LLC 901 Cherry Ave. San Bruno, CA 94066 USA. Also in this case, of course, the message must be written in English, otherwise it is likely that it will not be taken into consideration by YouTube.
• Help forum - also consider the possibility of using the official YouTube help forum and searching it for one of the problems you encountered, to see if it can be remedied. If no one has raised your own concerns in a forum thread, try opening a new thread to see if any users are able to help you out.

If you need further information on how to use the aforementioned contact methods, do not hesitate to take a look at the in-depth analysis in which I explain in detail how to contact YouTube. I'm sure this further reading will also be useful to you.

How to report a video on YouTube