File number: DBA26/042

Decision of: OTALP DEL ATH

Date of decision: 15 October 2026

The Decisions Body decides that:

  1. 1.

    Google LLC (as owners of YouTube) by its officers, employees, agents, or otherwise, must restore the channel that was accessible through the following links as of 14 October 2026:

    1. 1.

      https://www.youtube.com/SCSSoftware

    2. 2.

      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb9XDB0X13EEqUqCSsOhonQ

  2. 2.

    Decision 1 is to be carried out as soon as possible.

Catchwords: Social media—YouTube—Channel termination—Channel termination due to unauthorised access gained by external actor—Decision to restore channel.

Number of paragraphs: 5

Note: This copy of the Decisions Body’s reasons for decision may be subject to review to remedy typographical or grammatical errors.

A metallic blue Scania R 2nd generation outside a garage.

Dadagui73, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. This image depicts subject matter related to this decision and does not form part of the reasons for decision.

REASONS FOR DECISION

OTALP DEL ATH

1 SCS Software (SCS) is a Czech game development studio behind Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. Once of the many social media accounts maintained by SCS is a YouTube channel where they post trailers and live-streams for their video games and downloadable content (DLC) for both said games.

2 In the early morning of 15 October 2026, SCS had live-streamed gameplay of their upcoming Coaches DLC. Some number of hours after that live-stream concluded, something occurred where an external person was able to gain access to SCS’s YouTube channel and start multiple live-streams. I am not able to ascertain what that actual content of the live-streams were but from the titles and thumbnails, it would appear to be either a baseball game or United States politics (u/ACYNX. (2026-10-15). Looks like something happened… Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/trucksim/comments/1x6a1v8/looks_like_something_happened/).

3 At 7:07 pm, SCS Software announced on Twitter that after its YouTube channel was compromised, it has since been terminated for violating community guidelines and requested urgent assistance from YouTube’s Twitter accounts (SCS Software [@SCSSoftware]. (2026-10-15). Our YouTube channel SCSSoftware was compromised yesterday with unauthorised livestreams appearing. The channel has since been terminated… Twitter. x.com/SCSsoftware/status/2110643710950060163):

Our YouTube channel SCSSoftware was compromised yesterday with unauthorised livestreams appearing. The channel has since been terminated.
We urgently need assistance restoring our channel. Could someone from the team please reach out via DM to help us resolve this? @TeamYouTube

4 From the change in content from truck simulators to baseball, it is clear that the channel was hack in some way. This is not the first time that something like this has happened. A similar thing happened to Linus Tech Tips in March 2023 (Linus Tech Tips. (2023-03-24). My Channel Was Deleted Last Night. YouTube. youtube.com/watch?v=yGXaAWbzl5A) where hackers targeted session tokens. It is currently unknown if it was this method or another one that was used to gain unauthorised access to SCS’s YouTube channel.

5 Over a decade of videos have disappeared. It is unknown if SCS back ups of the videos but YouTube will be able to restore the channel as it has done with Linus Tech Tips and countless other channels that suffered similar incidents. SCS’s YouTube channel must be restored immediately.

I certify that the preceding five (5) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the reasons for decision of P Otalp, Delegate Authorised to Make Decisions.

Signature:

Date: 15 October 2026