Fans of YouTuber Christopher “Direct D” Ruff rejoiced early Monday morning as the YouTuber regained the right to live stream on the service following a brief suspension from live streaming this weekend for showing a replica BB gun on camera and being flagged by YouTube’s system for displaying an actual weapon.

The incident happened late Saturday night as Ruff had streamed on both his main channel and a private secondary channel. The stream was apparently halted, and Ruff received a notice that his ability to stream was suspended but it was “not a content warning or content strike.”

Ruff contacted YouTube customer service directly and via Twitter and received various conflicting automated answers that YouTube had made a “final ruling” about pulling his streams and that they were also investigating the cause of the Ruff’s ban from live streaming.

At question is Ruff’s display of a replica BB gun, which is designed to look like a “real” handgun. YouTube’s AI bots apparently did not review Ruff’s explanation that it was not a real weapon to take the display into context, despite what it looked like, and banned him from live streaming for an indefinite period.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7667605

YouTube’s firearm policies were revised in June 2024 and seem to concern the selling or production of firearms. Though in the example area of what is not permitted on the service, it states, “Live streams that feature someone holding or handling a firearm, regardless of whether or not they are firing it. Note: this does not include firearms in video games.”

For penalties for violating their guidelines, it states, “If this is your first time violating our Community Guidelines, you’ll likely get a warning with no penalty to your channel. You will have the chance to take a policy training to allow the warning to expire after 90 days. The 90 day period starts from when the training is completed, not when the warning is issued. However, if the same policy is violated within that 90 day window, the warning will not expire and your channel will be given a strike. If you violate a different policy after completing the training, you will get another warning.”

BB guns are not mentioned in the guidelines, but a case could be made for a replica BB gun that resembles a real firearm to be a violation of set policy.

Ruff did not specify that he received clarification from YouTube as of press time. The YouTuber set his most recent live stream where he addressed the controversy to “members only” status.