Public Videos on YouTube That Go Private

YouTube videos that has been public at one point in time should be possible to mark as private.

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By. Jacob

Edited: 2020-08-05 11:33

I just noticed that if a public video is made private, then there is no way of even telling what the video is, not even if you got it in a playlist or have liked the video. That's not okay.

If a video has been public at one point in time, I also think it should be possible to at least view the title and who uploaded it; currently when I click the video in a playlist, this is what happens.

I really wish there was a way to reach YouTube with this feedback. Maybe one of you, with a bigger following, can call out the problem in this? At least now I have called out the problem here, then hopefully someone else will also notice.

Screenshots follows:

A public video that went private on YouTube.

As the above screenshot indicates, we will not even be able to see who uploaded the video.

If the video is located in a playlist, it will simply show up as private; the user will not even be able to see what the video is:

A private YouTube video in playlist that was previously listed as public.

Public videos should not be possible to turn private

When a video has been public for a while, then it should not be possible for the uploader to mark it as fully private. That is, the public should at least be able to still view the title of the video and who uploaded it.

We will often be able to get this information anyway, we can do this through websites like the internet archive or by checking the Google cache of the pages.

It is problematic that public videos can be turned private, because the content might still be of interest to the public.

What happens when a public video goes private

When a public video is made private by the uploader, it will no longer be possible to view the video by anyone else than the uploader, and those that are given access by the uploader.

The problematic aspect of this is that the public also will not be able to view the title, description and who uploaded the video.

If someone has added the video to a playlist or liked the video, they will not be able to even review what the video is or who uploaded it, since this information is no longer available. That is a problem, and it should be changed.

Links

  1. Can’t see private videos - support.google.com

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