Youtube Shuts Down Chabad’s Largest Channel Due to Fraudulent Claim

By COLlive reporter

Staffers at Jewish Educational Media, the multi-media arm of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, were shocked Wednesday when its popular YouTube channel containing thousands of hours of content and videos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, was removed in its entirety by Youtube.

Youtube removed the channel, which is under the name JewishMedia, after multiple videos of the Rebbe were falsely reported as stolen copyrighted material.

Jewish Educational Media, led by Rabbi Elkanah Shmotkin and a team of over 40 content and production experts, has spent the past 2 decades, at the cost of millions of dollars, acquiring, restoring, and sharing video and photo content of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Their Youtube channel has been active since 2004 and has accumulated millions of views from around the globe. Many of their videos received tens of thousands of views, with the most viewed video of the Rebbe on YouTube on their channel, racking up over 723,000 views.

However this week, that video, which has been seen by – and impacted – hundreds of thousands of people, has been removed, due to a youtube “copyright strike.”

This, in addition to a series of other fraudulent copyright infringement claims made by one individual, has led to the channel being completely removed by YouTube, due to having more than three strikes.

The copyright strike was the work of a young man using the title of “Moshiach,” who has also bragged on his social media accounts about having fraudulently reported the institution.

Rabbi Shmotkin said the organization has little recourse at this time, other than to appeal to YouTube through a standard form to reinstate their popular channel of impeccable standing for many years.

“I’m surprised at how vulnerable YouTube’s system is, that a child with a mobile phone and some false claims can disable a channel with over seventeen years of history and sixteen million views,” Rabbi Shmotkin told COLlive.com. “Clearly, this individual needs our prayers, and I have compassion for him.”

“It’s Chanukah, and people are especially eager to be inspired by the Rebbe and his teachings. It’s a pity that YouTube has delegated to an algorithm the moral responsibility that every human being has to another,” he says.

Still, Shmotkin is hopeful that this will be resolved soon, and suggests that anyone with a connection to Youtube contact their acquaintance to point out the unfair closure.

“The Talmud teaches that the Chanukah candles may be lit nightly until the hour of ‘kalya rigla detarmuda’iy.’ The Chasidic Masters teach the inner meaning of this law: ‘The candles illuminate until the rebel on the thoroughfare is transformed to light.’ It’s a shame that such a bright source of light on so public a thoroughfare was dimmed on Chanukah, but I have no doubt that it’ll be back soon and will shine even brighter,” he said.

“The Rebbe hammered home, every single year without fail, that the message of Chanukah is to always increase in light. From both a moral and legal perspective, JEM is the custodian and owner of these videos, so though it might take a few days, it’s only a matter of time before they will be available once again, better than ever,” he said.

“Clearly, we still have some work to do, but sooner or later, the last corners of darkness will be illuminated.”

Rabbi Shmokin also said he and his staff will not be deterred in their holy mission by this incident.

“Clearly, we need to be doing even more. Our team will be sure to use this time to plan new ways to bring the Rebbe’s teachings and inspiration to even larger audiences.”

COLlive.com has reached out to Youtube’s parent company Alphabet for a comment, the request was not returned.

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For now, to view videos of the Rebbe, visit them on:
JEM.tv (microdonation) or one of their many free social media platforms, including instagram.com/jewish_media/; facebook.com/jewishmedia; linkedin.com/company/jewishmedia; tiktok.com/@jewish_media

Or one of their many foreign language YouTube channels, including Hebrew: youtube.com/HaRabbiMiLubavitch