Can the police track you down from a comment you made on YouTube? HELP!?

Question

Hi...so long story short, there was a case of police brutality at my university. I'm going into 2nd year. The professor who caught the act of police brutality on tape posted it to youtube, and sided with police. I do not know the professor personally. This happened like 8 months ago. A lot of people were pissed at the professor for taking that view. Well, I just got a youtube account and decided to leave a comment. I was fairly vulgar in my comment...saying eff you and calling the professor a racist for condoning the behaviour of the police.

I left this not on the video itself, but on his youtube channel (where you can't delete your own comments). I regretted it the minute I did it. It is likely that he won't even notice it or even he does, might not do anything about it because plenty of people have left him rude comments. But now I'm kind of afraid that it might have been against the university code of conduct and that maybe he could get me in trouble for it. It says on his profile that the last time he was signed on was 2 months ago and it IS the summer now so I'm not sure.... Am I freaking out for nothing?

I have since made my youtube profile/account not visible to anyone (private).

But essentially my question is CAN THE POLICE TRACK DOWN YOUR IP ADDRESS FROM A YOUTUBE CHANNEL COMMENT AND THEN FIND YOU? Even when your profile has been made private?

You don't need to rant at me telling me it was a stupid thing to do. I know it was stupid. But at the same time I wanted to express my opinion and I want more freedom of speech. I live in Canada where freedom of speech is restricted.

Answer 1

Technically, yes. But in practice they'd never do it for this situation.



It'd require a police warrant, co-operation from YouTube and co-operation from your ISP (the company that provides your internet); far too much work for such a trivial incident.



The university does not have authority to demand such an action and the police couldn't do it illegally because it'd just be too noticeable.



IP address tracking is only really used for uber-serious stuff, not YouTube comments.



You may sleep well again...

Answer 2

I wouldn't worry about it, since it's been like 8 months. And no I don't think the police are going to spend money on looking for you for a small issue like that. Even tho you just posted it, I don't think it would go very far. Your comments would probably only frustrate your Professor & that's about all, unless he's a real hard butt. So I would just go on like it never happened, there will be a lot more things in life to worry about than just comments posted, believe me.

Answer 3

I do not think that they can track down your IP from a youtube account. There is nothing to worry about. It was over 2 months ago. If he was trying to track down people, he would have done it already.

What do you mean be restricted? Like you cant have a freedom of speech?

Answer 4

Well youtube is a open and public place to share videos and comments. Unless the comment was something like "ima find you and ima kill you" (death threats and stuff) then you dont have to worry about it. If it was so that for leaving your opinion on someones actions then we would have thousands of people going to jail. Although do take into consideration that people have different views and everything so respect that...unless they go screaming into your face trying to make you go into their ways then go crazy!