YouTube terminates Delhi slum-dweller’s page following overnight success, social media protests

Social media has erupted with pleas from users asking YouTube India to restore the account of Mohammad Irfan, a resident of a Delhi slum, whose channel gained a substantial following overnight before being taken down by the video-hosting platform. 

While YouTube has not yet issued any official clarification, attempts to access Mr. Irfan’s page, Main Irfan, display a message stating that “this account has been terminated for violating Google’s Terms of Service”. 

Mr. Irfan also took to X, saying the termination was “some kind of mistake” and urging the platform to to rectify it. 

“My channel was completely new, and I have honestly followed all of YouTube’s guidelines,” Mr. Irfan said in his post on X. “People really liked my content, which is why my subscribers increased. It seems like there was a mistake by your automatic system. Please review my channel again and restore it.”

Mr. Irfan’s channel found a vocal supporter in veteran journalist Ajit Anjum, who posted several times on X in support of the page while it was active, and after it was taken down.

“A young man named Mohammad Irfan, who lives in a slum in Delhi, started his YouTube channel just yesterday with our support,” Mr. Anjum posted on X on Sunday (August 2, 2026). “From yesterday evening until this morning, his channel gained more than 70,000 subscribers.” 

“Suddenly this morning, his YouTube channel was terminated,” he added. “How did a working-class young man manage to gain so many subscribers in such a short time? That in itself is an extraordinary achievement. So why did YouTube terminate his channel so abruptly?,” the post said.

Several other social media users also posted in support of Mr. Irfan’s page, saying that the content and the channel were genuine, and that its termination was the result of a mistake by Google-owned YouTube’s automated systems. They urged the platform to rectify the issue.