Everyone's Confused Over YouTube Streamer Tyongeee's Punishment
YouTube has arguably dropped the ball on more than one occasion in recent months, but its latest hiccup just might be its most shady action yet. Demonetization of a channel is one of the worst things that can happen to a streamer — just look at the damage done to Amouranth's revenue — but that's exactly what just happened to popular Twitch streamer Tyongeee.
The weirdest part? YouTube yanked her ability to earn money from her videos due to claims of "re-used content," despite the YouTuber's claims that she's never re-uploaded videos before. This has caused many fans of the South Korean streamer to question YouTube's policies — and the reason that Tyongeee was demonetized.
The whole debacle was brought to fans' attention on July 17, when Tyongeee tweeted at TeamYouTube asking for an explanation after she'd been demonetized. The streamer wrote, "HELP! I suddenly got my channel demonetized without clear instruction." She added that she'd been "working hard trying to grow [her] youtube [channel]" but "it got demonetized for 'reused content.'" Finally, she claimed that she never tried to monetize content that didn't belong to her. The worst part of the whole situation might be that this happened after her latest video went viral, according to a follow-up tweet, with the upload racking up 70,000 views.
TeamYouTube did reply — with a canned, vague, and probably automated response. It read, "Thanks for reaching out – reused content happens when a channel lacks context or creative value to make it unique, and this is part of YouTube Partner Program policy." So what does this mean for Tyongeee?
This might be the reason that Tyongeee was demonetized
As with any popular streamer, Tyongeee's fans were as upset and confused as she was — and many began to speculate about the real reason YouTube had targeted her. The most likely theory, as explained by Reddit user willietrom, is that other YouTube channels had uploaded clips of Tyongeee's Twitch streams to their own channels before she had a chance to upload them to her own YouTube channel. This case of demonetization, according to the Redditor, could have resulted from the fact that Tyongeee never filed a copyright strike against the content — which is why YouTube perceived Tyongee's own uploads as "re-used content," resulting in a possibly bogus ban.
While willietrom's theory has not been confirmed, it does offer some explanation — which is something that cannot be said of YouTube itself. Tyongeee eventually replied to TeamYouTube's response to her original tweet, asking, "Can you be more clear about 'lacks context or creative value to make it unique?'" TeamYouTube has yet to reply to her follow-up tweet at the time of this writing.
Whatever the reason for Tyongee's demonitization, one thing is clear: The streamer has been greatly impacted by the whole situation. In a heartbreaking clip captured from one of her streams, Tyongeee admitted, "I got disconnected from my family and friends because I wanted to be a content creator on your platform." Through tears, she added, "Now, I cannot go back to corporate because my work experience is cut off."
Hopefully, both her pleas and those of her fans are enough to convince YouTube to reverse its decision.