One of the world's most influential voices on vaping and harm reduction has been silenced. YouTube has shut down GrimmGreen - a channel that has covered e-cigarettes, smoking cessation and nicotine policy for over 16 years. The channel is run by Nick Green, a pioneer of the vaping movement, who now believes he has fallen victim to increasingly aggressive and opaque moderation.
Note: Since this article was published, the GrimmGreen channel has been restored - read more about this here:
YouTube has shut down the channel GrimmGreen, one of the oldest and most visited channels testing and covering the technology of e-cigarettes since vaping products first hit the market. Nick Green started his channel back in 2009, when he quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes.
Since then, GrimmGreen has grown into a hub for information on vaping. Nick Green has reviewed thousands of products, reported on legislation and research on harm reduction - and amassed nearly half a million followers worldwide. Nick Green has also visited Sweden over the years and speaks highly of both traditional snus and nicotine pouches, which he uses regularly.
”I have never done anything illegal”
In a statement on the X platform, Nick Green reacts strongly to the decision to switch off the channel:
”I have never promoted anything illegal. I have never targeted young people. I have worked tirelessly to be a responsible voice in vejpning and harm minimisation. But like many other creators in this field, I seem to have been swept up in an overly aggressive wave of moderation.”
Recurrent raids and changing rules
There have been many moments of crisis surrounding GrimmGreen and YouTube over the years. In an interview with the news channel Global Forum On Nicotine TV Nick Green describes a pattern of recurring interventions from the platform:
- There is usually some kind of raid by YouTube about once a year. Often some guideline or policy has been changed. Maybe due to political pressure, but I'll leave that unsaid. In practice, it has been about so-called strikes against old videos - content that was perfectly fine five years ago, but is suddenly deemed non-compliant.
Nick Green says he spent a lot of time re-editing material after the fact, without really knowing what was required to pass.
- ”It's impossible to know if it will be ”right'. So far, it's been going well, but the recent huge wave of complaints has been something else entirely," he says.
Vaping is singled out - other nicotine is left alone
Nick Green is far from alone. Other high-profile channels like Vaping with Vick and Todd Reviews have been affected by changes to YouTube's algorithms and guidelines. Ten years ago, there were a large number of vaping channels providing consumers with factual information on products and legislation. Today, most have changed focus - or stopped publishing altogether.
According to Green, it is clear that vaping stands out as an issue on the platform.
- Channels that openly smoke or advertise alcohol seem to be untouched by the YouTube purge. It's quite funny: it's okay to smoke and talk rubbish about vaping - but if you talk about harm reduction or helping people to quit smoking, you can get into real trouble.
He points to one incident in particular that triggered the latest wave of interventions:
- One of the first videos to be taken down was about a government-funded study on the potential health benefits of treating patients with Parkinson's disease with nicotine patches.
Hoping for human scrutiny
During the autumn of 2025, Nick Green has been trying to connect with YouTube's review team via X - a method that has worked for other creators in the past. The aim is to get the channel back, which contains thousands of hours of material produced over 16 years.
At the same time, he has been uploading both new and old content to the platform for some time Rumble.
- But it is not the same. YouTube's reach is on a whole other level, even when the material is heavily age-restricted and pretty much completely de-monetised. In the end, I just hope YouTube lets a real human look at the case - and doesn't erase 16 years of my professional life via an AI and its algorithm.
