Nowhere To Go But Forward

Hey gentlemen, I just wanted to let you know what's going on with my platform. Last week, YouTube deleted my channel for having three "strikes" in violation of their firearms policy, strikes in which they never actually explained to me what the specific violations were. Every strike was appealed and subsequently denied, often within minutes. 2.5 years, almost 700 videos, 75M+ views, tens of thousands of watch hours, and 34.5K subscribers, all gone in an instant. I of course appealed this channel removal too, which was also quickly denied. I'm working hard from other angles (such as contacting them via X) to try to get through to someone who can help, but there are obviously no guarantees.

I'm not the only channel that's been affected by this recent draconian crackdown on gun content. Primary and Secondary, a large and long-running channel, was just removed. AK Operator's Union (360K subs) and Tactical Rifleman (1M subs) are both on strike 2 and not posting for the time being. Garand Thumb, Mr. Gunsngear, and MAC (3 of the biggest gun channels on YouTube) have recently had dozens of videos deleted per their social media posts. It's no secret that Google/Youtube is openly biased against gun content, and clearly they're starting to move in force against 2A content. If current trends continue, I will not be the last YouTube channel removed, and we may see the end of gun content as we know it on YouTube before too long.

But all is not lost. I've had a Rumble channel for over a year, and I will continue posting my long-form content there. The views are lower than YouTube, but there is none of the censorship (FRT/Full auto, working on guns, posting direct links, etc, are all good over there). I've also had no issues with Instagram, where I'm at 1K followers and post anywhere from 3-6x per week. Current YouTube rules don't allow for creating a new account, but they apparently have a new pilot program for banned creators to start new channels. I currently "don't qualify" but hopefully that will change in the future.

In addition, I'm also building a website, theforwardassist.com, where I plan to post long-form written content in the form of blogs/articles. I'll be able to post direct links to products, embed my videos, and share pictures too. I'm obviously extremely disappointed and frustrated by YouTube's current policies, but I remain committed to bringing people quality information and useful content. Forward Assist is changing but it's definitely not going away.

Nowhere to go but Forward!

Thanks and God bless,

/FA