Oppo's India Youtube Channel Suspended During Livestream

SUMMARY

"This account has been terminated for violating YouTube's terms of service,” said a notification on Oppo India’s official YouTube page

The account was pulled down in the middle of the livestream of launch of Oppo India’s Reno 8 series of smartphones

The account was reportedly taken down after Oppo compared its flagship Reno8 series smartphones with Apple’s iPhones

Smartphone maker Oppo India’s YouTube channel was temporarily terminated on Monday (July 18) in the middle of the livestream of the launch of its Reno8 series of smartphones.

The account was later reinstated after being down for hours. It was pulled down for allegedly violating the video platform’s terms of service. “This account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s terms of service,” said a ticker on the company’s official YouTube page.

A query sent by Inc42 to Oppo regarding the fiasco remained unanswered. The story will be updated on receiving a response from the phone manufacturer.

The account was reportedly taken down after Oppo compared its flagship Reno8 series smartphones with Apple’s iPhones.

The company, however, continued its livestream which was available on other platforms such as Twitter. The event saw the launch of Reno 8 Pro, Reno 8, Oppo Pad Air tablet, and true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds.

The smartphone maker’s Indian arm has 6.47 Mn subscribers and 46.5 cr views on its YouTube channel.

YouTube says that the platform enforces strict community guidelines pertaining to fake engagement, impersonation, child safety, nudity and sexual content, among other elements. The platform also states that these regulations are employed using a combination of human reviewers and machine learning tools.

In a similar case in February this year, state-owned Sansad TV’s YouTube account was also temporarily terminated by the video-sharing platform for violating ‘Community Guidelines.’ Later, it had emerged that the account was banned after it was compromised due to ‘unauthorised activities by some scamsters’.

The termination of Oppo India’s YouTube account also comes at a time when the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is under government lens for alleged evading tax to the tune of INR 4,389 Cr. The case pertained to misdeclaration of certain items while importing them to avail custom duty exemption.

Other major Chinese players such as Vivo and Xiaomi are also in the dock for allegedly evading tax and violating foreign exchange norms.