YouTuber Leafy Banned From Platform For Violating “Harassment” Policy After Producing Series of Videos On Twitch Streamer Pokimane
Spencer Baculi
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Popular YouTuber Calvin “Leafyishere” Lee Vai has been suspended from the popular video sharing platform due to allegedly violating the site’s “harassment” policy in a series of videos discussing Twitch streamer Pokimane.
Leafy, who first rose to prominence in 2013 with his popular commentary and Let’s Play videos, amassed nearly five million followers before he took a hiatus from content creation in December 2017.
Related: YouTube Cracks Down on Harassment and Threats, Enacts New Guidelines for Content Creators
In April 2020, Leafy returned to YouTube to respond to a criticism of himself made by fellow YouTuber Ian “iDubbz” Carter.
While this response seemed to be a one-off production, Leafy returned in July 2020 with a series of videos that criticized Twitch streamer Pokimane and alleged that she had hid a boyfriend from her followers in order to garner more male attention.
On August 21st, esports reporter Rod “Slasher” Breslau reported that Leafy’s account had been “terminated due to ‘multiple or severe violations of YouTube’s policy prohibiting content designed to harass, bully, or threaten.’”
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Leafy addressed his account’s termination on August 22nd in a tweet to various YouTube-related Twitter accounts, as well as the H3H3 productions account, wherein the YouTuber asked “if there is anything I could do to get reinstated. Or if there is any statement on this you could give.”
He would also add that he did not receive any recent strikes against his channel and claimed he was suspended “with no warning.”
Pokimane herself would respond to Breslau’s announcement to clarify that she “had nothing to do with leafy’s ban.”
A YouTube spokesperson who spoke with The Verge confirmed that Leafy was permanently banned, and stated, “We have strict policies that prohibit harassment on YouTube, and we remove content that violates our policies when flagged to our attention.”
“Channels that repeatedly violate our policies will be terminated,” the spokesperson concluded.
As of writing, Leafy has stated that he has received “no word from @TeamYouTube or @YTCreators on suspension.”
He also noted that he “will miss having that outlet but mainly been doing this for fun since coming back.”
However, Leafy also stated that he is “not big on going the ‘if i should be banned so should them’ route. Cause it’s pretty lame, website is shit.”
The situation was covered by YouTuber Vara Dark, who asserted that “hearing this news isn’t giving myself and a lot of other creators a lot of confidence” in the platform.
What do you make of Leafy’s ban?
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