YouTube copyright takedown form and app store impersonation removal: who may file what
Short answer. The YouTube copyright takedown form is open only to the copyright owner or an authorised agent, and it sits in YouTube Studio under Content detection. App store impersonation removal runs through Apple’s App Store Content Dispute form, which passes the claim to the developer. Fake profiles, scam listings and lost money each have a different door, and each door admits a different person.
Most failed takedowns we see were sent by the wrong person. A friend files an impersonation report that only the impersonated person may sign. A customer sends a trademark complaint that only the brand may send. A fan fills in a DMCA form for an artist who never authorised it. The form was right; the sender had no standing, so the platform closed the ticket.
This guide sorts sixteen platforms by one question: who is allowed to file. It covers copyright forms, store and brand complaints, fake-profile reports on social and dating apps, scam listings, money already sent, and the paid “ban” offers that feed on all of them. Sources were checked on 11 October 2026. Cases that span several of these doors are what our content removal casework handles.
Who may file a YouTube copyright takedown form?
Only the copyright owner, or an agent the owner has authorised, may file a YouTube copyright takedown form. A viewer who spots a stolen video cannot file for the creator. The same split runs through every platform in this guide: rights forms belong to the rights holder, identity forms belong to the person copied, and only the plain in-app report is open to any signed-in user.
Standing decides the outcome before the evidence is read. The table groups the sixteen platforms by the class of sender each route accepts. Read the row first, then pick the form.
| Sender | Routes that accept this sender | What the route can do |
|---|---|---|
| Copyright owner or authorised agent | YouTube removal request, Dailymotion copyright notification, DeviantArt DMCA form | Remove the copied work; may add a strike to the uploader |
| Trademark or brand owner | Apple App Store Content Dispute, Chrome Web Store legal form, eBay VeRO | Remove or change the app, extension or listing |
| The person impersonated, or a legal representative | Hinge, Bumble and Grindr impersonation reports; LinkedIn and Bluesky identity reports | Remove the fake profile |
| Any signed-in user | In-app report or flag on Bluesky, LinkedIn, Fiverr, Depop, eBay, craigslist, Discord, Chrome Web Store | Send the item to review; no personal reply is promised |
| The person who lost money | Bank dispute, FTC and IC3 reports, police report | Recover funds or build a record; removes nothing |
Three practical rules follow from the table. A person with no standing should hand the evidence to someone who has it instead of filing. A rights holder should use the rights form even when a general flag exists, because the rights form creates a legal notice. And nobody should pay a stranger who claims to file “on your behalf” without a signed authorisation, since an unauthorised agent has no more standing than a bystander.
What does the YouTube copyright takedown form ask for?
The YouTube copyright takedown form asks for the video URLs, a description of the original work, the claimant’s contact details, two legal statements and a full legal name as signature. YouTube’s help page puts the form in YouTube Studio: sign in, open Content detection in the left menu, and choose New removal request. Filing is free and works best on a computer.
YouTube accepts the same notice by email to [email protected], by fax or by post, and those routes are the only ones for content that is not a video: channel banners, channel descriptions, comments, posts and playlist images. The page also states that a whole channel or playlist cannot be requested for removal in one notice. Each infringing video needs its own URL, as YouTube’s removal request instructions set out.
Three choices on the form change what happens next:
- Scheduled or standard. A scheduled request takes effect after 7 days, which gives the uploader time to delete the video and avoid a copyright strike. A standard request removes the video once it passes review.
- Prevent copies. A tick box asks YouTube to block future uploads of the same video.
- Whose name appears. The uploader can request the claimant’s name, email and full legal name. The physical address and phone number stay confidential unless a lawsuit requires them.
295,531 rights holders filed removal requests through YouTube’s public webform in 2025. YouTube’s reviewers judged more than 6% of those requests a likely false assertion of ownership, an attempted abuse rate over 10 times that of its other copyright tools, and uploaders answered 9.9% of webform removals with a counter-notification.YouTube Copyright Transparency Report for 2025, as reported by TorrentFreak, 6 June 2026.
Those figures explain why the YouTube copyright takedown form now carries follow-up questions before YouTube acts. Anyone looking for dmca form help should start with the fair-use question, because YouTube states that a request without a sufficient answer on copyright exceptions may be invalid. A dmca takedown request form on any platform carries the same six elements: signature, the work, the infringing URL, contact details, a good-faith statement and an accuracy statement under penalty of perjury.
The YouTube copyright takedown form has no twin elsewhere, and the mechanics differ on each network. X publishes the outcome of each notice, which we cover in our piece on why X copyright notices stall. TikTok splits copyright and trademark into separate forms, described in the guide to reporting stolen TikTok videos. Telegram takes notices by email and through an in-app option, and our page on Telegram copyright complaints lists what Telegram removes and what Telegram leaves up.
Dailymotion and DeviantArt: the same notice, different doors
The Dailymotion copyright complaint form and the DeviantArt DMCA takedown form both ask for the six statutory elements, and both accept only the rights holder or an authorised agent. The difference is the door. DeviantArt’s online form requires a free DeviantArt account, while a written notice can go by post or as a PDF attached to an email to [email protected].
DeviantArt’s copyright policy treats three strikes as the mark of a repeat infringer subject to a ban, and bans at once an account that deliberately passes off another artist’s work as its own. For an artist whose gallery was copied wholesale, that second rule matters more than the strike count. The notice should say that the account presents the work as original.
A Dailymotion DMCA takedown form request works under two legal systems at once. Dailymotion is a French company, so French hosting law applies alongside the US notice procedure. A Paris court held Dailymotion liable in 2012 for late removal of content that TF1 had properly notified, according to the Kluwer Copyright Blog. For a rights holder, the lesson is to keep the submission receipt and the date. The clock for “prompt” removal starts when a complete notice arrives, and an incomplete notice does not start it.
How does app store impersonation removal work?
App store impersonation removal starts with Apple’s App Store Content Dispute form, filed by the owner of the trademark or copyright the fake app uses. Apple does not judge the claim first. Apple’s legal page says the company will contact the provider of the disputed app and ask that provider to work with the claimant directly. Removal follows when the developer fails to answer or the infringement is plain.
That forwarding step is the part most guides to app store impersonation removal leave out, and it shapes the evidence. The first reader of an Apple dispute is the developer of the fake app, so the claim should contain nothing the claimant would not hand to an adversary. The Apple dispute forms page also lists a separate App Name Dispute for a squatted app name, and states that Apple does not investigate claims about branded terms used as Search Ads keywords.
App store impersonation removal can be slow. TechCrunch reported on 26 April 2024 that the auto-parts retailer RockAuto had filed trademark and DMCA complaints about a fake app and received only automated replies; Apple removed the app after the article ran. Google Play has its own forms, and Apple cannot act on third-party stores, so app store impersonation removal is filed store by store. A brand planning an app store impersonation removal should file the dispute, record the date, and prepare a second route at the same time.
Chrome Web Store and eBay: the brand owner’s forms
Google gives two routes for a fake browser extension. Any signed-in user can open the listing and use Flag Issue, the nearest thing to a Chrome Web Store report abuse form. A trademark or copyright owner uses the separate legal form linked from Google’s flagging help page. One warning for developers: Malwarebytes documented phishing emails in 2026 that copy a Chrome Web Store copyright notice, add a 48-hour countdown, and collect Google logins. A real notice appears in the developer dashboard.
An eBay brand protection takedown goes through VeRO, the Verified Rights Owner programme, which eBay says “allows intellectual property rights owners to report listings or items that infringe on their protected rights.” Customers cannot use it. A brand impersonation removal therefore needs the registration number, the infringing URL and a named contact at the brand before anything is filed.
When the fake app or listing also points to a cloned website, the site is a separate job with a separate switch, covered in our guide to getting a phishing site switched off. A brand protection takedown that spans stores, marketplaces and domains is usually where a paid service earns its fee; our comparison of removal services and report bots explains what such a service can and cannot add.
Impersonation reports on Bluesky and LinkedIn
A Bluesky impersonation report is filed from the fake account’s profile menu, and anyone signed in can send one. Bluesky’s policy since November 2024 removes impersonation and handle-squatting accounts. Parody, satire and fan accounts stay only when the label appears in both the display name and the bio; an account labelled in one place is treated as an impersonator.
People search for this as “bluesky report impersonation” or “get bluesky impersonator removed” and expect a form with an ID upload. Bluesky has none. The report is a category and a text box, so the text has to carry the proof: the real handle, the date the copy appeared, and which elements were copied. The strongest way to get a Bluesky impersonator removed is to make the real account verifiable first, by setting a domain the person or company controls as the handle, and then point to that handle in the report.
Bluesky received 9.97 million reports from 1.24 million reporters in 2025 and took down 2,446,334 accounts and items. Its safety account states that mass reporting alone does not lead to suspensions.Bluesky Transparency Report 2025, published 29 January 2026.
The cases behind the search “executive impersonation linkedin” follow a pattern: a profile with a real chief executive’s name and photo, few connections, and messages to staff or suppliers about an urgent payment. LinkedIn’s help centre lists a claimed “company executive with no verifiable connections” among the signs of a fake profile. The report path is More, then Report/Block, then the option that the person is impersonating someone. LinkedIn said 99.6% of the fake accounts it stopped in the second half of 2023 were caught before any member reported them, so the copies that reach an inbox are the ones built to pass automated checks.
The executive should file the report personally, and the company should file a second one for misuse of its name. Our walk-through of taking down a LinkedIn profile covers the forms and the notarised-ID route. The same person-only rule applies elsewhere, with different paperwork: see the guides to reporting a cloned X account, to Facebook impostor reports and to what an Instagram takedown request can reach.
Catfish profiles on Hinge, Bumble and Grindr
Dating apps remove a fake profile when the person whose photos were taken reports it, or when a user who met the profile reports the fraud. Hinge states that an impersonated person should report the profile personally, or through a parent or legal representative. No dating app sells a faster lane, so a paid catfish removal service can only prepare the same report.
The in-app paths differ, and so does what each one asks for:
| App | Path | Detail that helps |
|---|---|---|
| Hinge | Three dots on the profile or chat, then Report; impersonation also through the help centre request form under Safety and Reporting | The exact name, age, bio and photos shown on the fake profile |
| Bumble | Hide and Report at the bottom of the profile, reason “Stolen photo”; from a chat, the three-dot menu | A link to the real source of the photos |
| Grindr | Block icon on the profile, then Report, then the option for someone pretending to be the reporter or a person the reporter knows | Where the copied material sits: photo, profile text, chat or album |
To ban a scammer on Hinge, report from inside the conversation before unmatching, because the chat is the evidence and Hinge says deliberate false reports can bring a permanent ban on the reporter. A Bumble impersonation removal request is strongest with the original photo source attached. On the “get scammer banned on Grindr” question, report first and block second, since reporting on Grindr does not block the profile.
A catfish profile removal service is worth paying for in one situation only: the same stolen photos are live on several apps and sites at once, and someone has to track every copy. When the stolen material is intimate, the route changes to hash-matching and legal notices, described in our guide to removing leaked private images. The FTC reported on 7 May 2026 that romance scam losses rose 22% in 2025, inside more than 1 million imposter reports with $3.5 billion lost.
Scam listings on eBay, Depop, Fiverr and craigslist
A scam listing is reported by any signed-in user through the listing’s own report link, and the report removes the listing without returning any money. Refunds run through a second process with its own deadline: eBay Money Back Guarantee, Depop Protection or Fiverr’s order resolution. A buyer who has paid should open the refund claim first and send the report second.
- eBay. To report a scammer on eBay, use Report this item on the listing or report the member from the order. People who search “ebay report a scammer” after paying need the Money Back Guarantee claim, which is separate from the report.
- Depop. A Depop scam report is sent in the app from the listing or the chat. Depop told Which? in 2024 that buyers get a full refund under Depop Protection when the issue is reported within 30 days of purchase. Payments made outside the app are not covered.
- Fiverr. A Fiverr scam report attaches to a Gig or a message. Fiverr’s help centre says a user cannot be reported as a whole, so the way to make a Fiverr report scammer complaint stick is to report each Gig and each message where the fraud appears.
- craigslist. A craigslist scam post removal needs no account: the “prohibited” flag sits at the top of every post.
craigslist is the one platform here where volume is the published rule. Its flagging FAQ states that “free classified ads sufficiently flagged are subject to automated removal” and that millions of ads are removed this way each month. A craigslist scam ad takedown for a paid listing, or for a scammer who reposts, goes through the contact form under the scams category, with the post ID.
Fiverr shows what happens when a listing copies a real professional. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported on 26 November 2025 that it had alerted 30 people and companies to Fiverr profiles trading on their names, many built on real UK solicitors’ registration numbers with AI-generated headshots. The Solicitors Regulation Authority named eight such profiles in a scam alert on 19 November 2025. A professional in that position reports the Gig and also tells the regulator, because the regulator’s public alert is what clients find when they search the name.
Scam sellers on video apps follow different rules again, since the shop and the account are tied together; see our guide to reporting a TikTok scam seller.
When to file a police report for a Zelle scam
File a police report for Zelle scam losses after the bank has been notified, never in place of that call. US law gives the bank dispute its deadlines; a police report has none. Under Regulation E, liability for an unauthorised transfer is capped at $50 when the bank is told within 2 business days and at $500 after that, and rights can lapse 60 days after the statement showing the transfer.
Whether Regulation E applies turns on one word. A transfer made by a thief who got into the account is unauthorised and must be refunded. A transfer the account holder sent after being deceived is treated by most banks as authorised, and refunds then depend on bank policy. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Regulation E guidance says a bank cannot require a police report as a condition of investigating an error.
A police report is still worth an hour. A police report gives the bank dispute a case number, supports an FTC report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and an FBI IC3 complaint, and is often the document a platform’s legal team asks for before releasing account records to investigators. Call the non-emergency line, ask for the fraud unit, and keep a copy.
Ban-service scams and the Discord “I reported you” trick
A ban-as-a-service scam sells a promise that the seller cannot keep: a guaranteed ban on a named account, paid upfront, usually in cryptocurrency. No platform in this guide publishes a rule that removes an account for report volume alone, and craigslist’s flag threshold applies to ads, not people. The payment is the whole product.
Ban-service scams share three marks. The price is quoted per target with a deadline in hours. Payment is by crypto or gift card, which cannot be charged back. Proof is a screenshot of a banned profile that could belong to anyone. A crypto ban scam adds a second stage: after the first payment the seller reports a “complication” and asks for more. We priced these offers against Meta’s published rules in our review of Facebook ban sellers, and tested the tooling claims in the guide to TikTok report bots.
The Discord mass report scam runs the other way round. A stranger or a hijacked friend account messages the target: “I accidentally reported you, contact this admin or your account will be banned.” The fake admin then asks for a login code, a QR scan or a payment. Discord staff do not negotiate bans in direct messages, and no user can cancel another user’s report.
The scam works because people confuse two things. On the question of a Discord platform ban vs server ban: a server ban is issued by that server’s moderators, covers one server, and can be lifted by them at any time. A platform ban is issued by Discord’s Trust and Safety team, covers the whole account, and can only be appealed to Discord. A moderator cannot threaten the second, and a stranger in direct messages can threaten neither.
Legitimate bans come from documented rule breaches reported once and well. Our guides to what gets a Roblox account banned and to TikTok’s strike rules show how the platforms themselves describe the threshold.
Frequently asked questions
Can I file a YouTube copyright takedown form for someone else?
Only as an authorised agent. YouTube accepts a removal request from the copyright owner or a representative the owner has authorised, and the form asks which one the sender is. A fan, friend or viewer with no authorisation should send the video link to the owner instead.
Does the uploader see who filed the YouTube copyright takedown form?
Yes. The uploader can request a copy of the notice showing the claimant’s name, email address, full legal name and description of the work. YouTube keeps the claimant’s physical address and phone number confidential unless a lawsuit requires disclosure. An authorised representative can file so that the representative’s details appear.
How long does app store impersonation removal take?
Apple publishes no timeline. Apple forwards the dispute to the developer and asks both sides to resolve it directly, so the time depends on whether the developer answers. In the RockAuto case reported by TechCrunch in April 2024, a fake app stayed up through repeated complaints and came down after press coverage.
Can a friend report a fake dating profile that uses my photos?
A friend can flag the profile in the app, but the impersonation claim should come from the person in the photos. Hinge says an impersonated person should report personally, or through a parent or legal representative. Send the friend’s screenshots with the report as supporting evidence.
Is a police report required to get money back after a Zelle scam?
No. Under Regulation E a bank cannot make a police report a condition of investigating an unauthorised transfer. Notify the bank first, within 2 business days where possible, then file the police report to support the dispute and any FTC or IC3 complaint.
Do paid ban services work?
Paid ban services cannot guarantee a ban, because platforms act on rule breaches and not on the number of reports. Bluesky states that mass reporting alone does not lead to suspensions. Offers that demand cryptocurrency upfront and promise a ban within hours match the pattern of advance-fee fraud.
Not sure whose name belongs on the form?
Send the links and say who owns the work, the brand or the identity. The review names the door for each item, who has to sign, and which items no notice will reach.