Guwahati: Social media users have launched a campaign urging YouTube India to restore the account of Mohammad Irfan, a Delhi resident whose newly created channel attracted tens of thousands of subscribers within a day before the platform took it down.
Visitors attempting to access Irfan’s YouTube channel, Main Irfan, are greeted with a notice stating that the account has been terminated for “violating Google’s Terms of Service.” As of now, YouTube has not issued any official statement explaining the reason behind the suspension.
Mohammad Irfan recently came into the spotlight after a video of him reciting the Preamble of the Constitution during the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest at Jantar Mantar went viral. In his speech, he spoke about the struggles of workers in the unorganised sector and called for better access to education, healthcare, and democratic rights.
On July 28, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi met Irfan and praised him, saying his perspective reflected the strength and aspirations of India’s youth.
Following the removal of his YouTube channel, Irfan appealed to the platform through a post on X, claiming the termination was likely the result of an error.
“My channel was completely new, and I have honestly followed all of YouTube’s guidelines,” he wrote. “People appreciated my content, which is why my subscriber count grew quickly. It seems there has been a mistake by the automated system. Please review my channel and restore it.”
The issue has drawn support from veteran journalist Ajit Anjum, who had earlier promoted Irfan’s channel on social media and later questioned YouTube’s decision to remove it.
In a post on X on Sunday (August 2), Anjum said Irfan had launched the channel only a day earlier with his support and that it had crossed 70,000 subscribers within hours.
“A young man named Mohammad Irfan, who lives in a Delhi slum, started his YouTube channel just yesterday with our support. From yesterday evening until this morning, his channel gained more than 70,000 subscribers,” Anjum wrote.
He added that the channel was suddenly terminated the following morning and questioned the action. “How did a working-class young man manage to gain so many subscribers in such a short time? That itself is an extraordinary achievement. So why did YouTube terminate his channel so abruptly?” he asked.
Several other users on X also expressed support for Irfan, arguing that the channel’s rapid growth was driven by genuine public interest rather than any policy violation. Many suggested the suspension could have resulted from an automated moderation error and called on YouTube to review the decision and restore the account.
YouTube has not responded publicly to the growing calls for clarification or the restoration of the channel.