Official Adventist Church YouTube channel restored after five days of termination

The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s official YouTube account was restored over the weekend thanks to a petition from the administration and church members, after hackers took over the platform to promoting a cryptocurrency scam on February 27.
The scam, which was reported by multiple YouTube accounts worldwide— including the Adventist Church in Poland and Jamaica — is hijacking major YouTube accounts and impersonating Elon Musk’s SpaceX channel, offering fake freebies to make money for viewers.
In response to the violation, YouTube terminated the official Adventist Church channel, although no warning was given or there were strikes before the full termination.

The Word Adventist Church’s communications department quickly submitted two official appeals to YouTube, including materials demonstrating the channel’s importance to Adventists around the world. After four days of uncertainty, communications services around the world coordinated a campaign on Twitter, asking members to pray and call @TeamYouTube to restore the channel.

The campaign began at 7:14 p.m. on Friday, March 4. Hundreds of people united their voices.

“YouTube please reconsider and allow the Adventist Church channel to resume. It’s a tragedy that everyday people seek out the content that made such a difference in their lives and now it’s gone. @TeamYouTube it’s clearly a mistake. I know you will do the right thing.”—@Kelty37

“The real owners of the YouTube site @adventistchurch should find their channel! They wouldn’t post that kind of content themselves. They were hacked @TeamYouTube. — @kimbalaya

“Praying that @TeamYouTube restores the @adventistchurch YouTube channel 🙏🏼 It’s such a blessing to all of us ❤️.”—@AdemarCallejas

By 6 a.m. the following morning, March 5, YouTube had restored the channel, with hundreds of people once again taking to Twitter to express their gratitude.

“@TeamYouTube, we want to thank you so much for considering and granting our call. You are so effective. From 21 million of us, thank you 🙏🏼.” — @adventistchurch

For Seventh-day Adventist World Church associate communications director Sam Neves, the reinstatement has been an answer to countless prayers.

“Our whole team was devastated. It would be the first Sabbath in almost 10 years without inspiring people through our YouTube videos,” he said. “But God answered our prayers through the YouTube team. When our team in the Americas woke up last Sabbath, our channel had been restored. It was truly a happy Sabbath.

The ordeal, which lasted 5 days, reminded all Adventists of the value of video content and the importance of the YouTube platform to the Church’s evangelistic efforts.

“It was also a strong reminder to all communications teams of the importance of strong security protocols to keep every social media property safe,” Neves added. “The hack lasted just under an hour, which was the time it took the social media team to remove the fraudulent video and restore the channel’s name and visual identity. only possible because the channel’s owner account was restricted by multi-factor authentication protocols. The other affected channels lost their ability to stop the hack on their own, as their owner account was also compromised.”

With content ranging from the latest ANN news to theological studies, messages of encouragement and official statements from Church leaders, the Official Adventist Church Channel is both a vital communication platform and a historical document of past events.

“Each of our worldwide Adventist church chains is unique and serves a large community. We exist to help everyone understand the Bible so they can find freedom, healing and hope in Jesus,” Neves said.

With many videos receiving thousands, if not millions, of views, it’s clear that people around the world have been personally and collectively touched by the videos posted to the official Adventist Church YouTube account.

“My granddaughter is a teenager and she has a lot of anxiety, she has a lot of pressure points. So I shared this video with her, and they said they were going to listen to it. Thank you for serve our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”—Mary Burge (1 month ago)

“God has moved me to share the literature of truth with anyone and anywhere – the postman, the repairman, the gardener, the cashiers and clerks at the grocery store or gas station, the hotel room concierges, etc. Honor the name of God!” – Ruby Tangonan (7 months ago)

“I left China a year ago and have just arrived in Cambodia, in a very crowded Chinatown. I rely on Jesus to lead me to those he prepares. At the top, a lesson in English and a video, a synopsis of the life of Christ, in Chinese of course. God probably has other plans to do this work in which He will lead my wife and me. Appreciate your prayers for us, and any advice, appropriately, you might say, “God has given you a mission, go for it.” – Bill (6 months ago)

“I am so impressed and inspired by this message from Pastor Finley. Not only am I motivated to strengthen my personal mission to spread the gospel message for the Lord with immediacy, but I also feel compelled to share this message with my church brethren so that all of our members can catch the vision and the motivation that I am now. experiment by listening to the messenger of God. —Neville Henry (2 months ago)

The Adventist Church’s official YouTube channel is part of the global church’s digital evangelism initiative. The channel’s subscribers have grown from 20,299 in 2019 to 182,493 currently. This 800% growth is due to the efforts of a great team of professionals around the world who create new content, manage the channel and provide pastoral care to viewers.

The World Administration of the Seventh-day Adventist Church expresses its thanks to all church members who prayed and asked @TeamYouTube to restore the channel, and also thanks YouTube for their prompt and professional service in resolving the issue .