Your YouTube feed might soon be free of fake Mr Beast x Elon Musk livestreams

Reports of social media accounts being hacked and held for ransom by criminals aren’t particularly new. Many YouTube channel owners have faced similar issues, including an official Google channel that fell prey to a crypto scam not too long ago. Now, YouTube is strengthening its defenses against such malicious actors by implementing some new safeguards.

In a support page post, the streaming platform said it is temporarily pausing certain features for accounts when it notices “unusual activity.”

While YouTube didn’t outline what it classifies as unusual activity, accounts it deems hacked won’t be able to begin a livestream, upload custom thumbnails, create new playlists or add videos to existing ones, or set private videos to public or unlisted. Stopping livestreams from compromised accounts could curb a popular crypto scam method that uses AI deepfake videos of popular celebrities like Elon Musk to promote fraudulent products.

When YouTube pauses an account this way, its security teams will reportedly review the status within 24 hours. If it identifies unauthorized activity, YouTube will contact the account owner with guidance on recovering their account. If the real owner verifies the account’s security, YouTube will restore access right away.

A key concern with an automatic channel pause system is that it can inadvertently affect the channel owner by hiding all their existing videos. To address these concerns, the streaming platform says the temporary pause won’t affect the channel’s monetization status, and viewers can still watch and interact with the channel and its videos as normal.

As YouTube admits, prevention can help in most cases, so creators are encouraged to use strong passwords and 2-step verification (2SV) to secure their channels. However, on the off chance that hackers bypass these security measures, YouTube has a few ways it will let account owners know what’s going on.

YouTube says it will display a prominent banner in YouTube Studio explaining what’s happening to impacted creators. The platform will also give channel owners a “clear explanation” of what happened, along with an estimated resolution time, which YouTube says is typically within a day. They will also be given steps to review any unauthorized changes made up to that point and secure the account.

As hackers continue to evolve and become more deceptive, it’s great to see major players like YouTube adapt their methods to ensure creators don’t suffer due to hacking attempts.