[ganoushoreilly]

If that's it, it's a ridiculous premise. I won some music equipment from Sweetwater by liking and commenting on a video (though not sure they would be able to verify the like).

I expect things like this to continue to grow as we rely more and more on algorithms in all walks of life without thinking through true recourse options.

[dangus]

If true, the channel owner was trying to game the system to make their channel look like it was more popular than it really was.

An analogy would be like a TV host telling the audience to watch the show on five televisions so that they would get a higher Nielsen ratings and then get more money from advertisers. No TV network or advertiser would be happy about that.

In other words, if this is what was really happening, this channel was essentially trying to scam YouTube into thinking they were more popular than they really are for their own monetary gain.

To me it seems like this channel deserved what they got, if the allegations are true.

I even doubt that the channel was automatically removed by an algorithm. Maybe it was flagged by one for human review. Just because a company doesn’t contact you doesn’t mean a human wasn’t involved in your particular case. Furthermore, just because Sweetwater got away with it one time doesn’t mean it’s not against the TOS.

I’m just speculating, and I don’t have skin in the game.

[raydev]

Sweetwater is not "getting away with it." They have verified legal clearance, and the owner of linux experience does not.

Your concerns about "scamming" aren't relevant. Many of YouTube's most popular channels do this sort of contest, and there is no hard ban on this type of thing.

[xyzzy21]

PROVE this! I'm calling 100% BS!

[Spivak]

I don't think you deserve the downvotes, this is click-fraud and I'm not at all surprised that it got axed. I'm sure it with enough media outrage and a private mea culpa from the creator it will be reinstated but on first blush I think this was the right call.