Allyson Townsend has been shut down by YouTube

Allyson Townsend, who built herself a fervent fanbase by translating modern pop songs by Miley Cyrus, Kesha, and others into American Sign Language, has been shut down by YouTube in the name of copyright infringement. her former account, allyballybabe, has been suspended, and she is no longer allowed any other accounts with YouTube.

Fans of Townsend were furious at the announcement, flooding her Facebook fan community with hundreds of comments. Chris Wheeldon stated that Townsend’s work had been a great gift to her deaf grandson. Even the artists that Townsend has performed to have spoken out. a representative from Owl City said:

Unfortunately, we have zero control over what content is pulled down on YouTube and other services. our record label, well within their rights, has the ability to pull down unauthorized use of our songs (which they own the copyright of) – and this is likely one of those instances. Seems like Ally ASL is doing amazing things and we support her efforts wholeheartedly.

Townsend is a professional educator for the deaf who is applying for her Master’s degree. her fame for her internet videos have led to public performances signing songs in her effort to spread music to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. though she maintains control over her fan Facebook, and has recently started a Vimeo account complete with new videos, the loss of so many years of work was a blow.

“14,000-plus subscribers, 90 videos… countless hundreds of thousands of views and comments.. all gone. Forever,” said Townsend. “And for what? so that they don’t have their songs being signed? Give me a break. It’s okay for kids to dance to the songs, but not signing them?”