YouTube apologises for removing Lofi Girl videos due to false copyright claims

YouTube has apologised for wrongfully taking down popular livestream videos by the Lofi Girl channel over false copyright claims.

Lofi Girl tweeted on 10th July that YouTube sent the account a copyright takedown notice stating that the ‘lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to’ and ‘beats to sleep/chill to’ streams — which have a combined total of nearly 800 billion views — were reported by user “FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia”. Lofi Girl was issued with one copyright strike, a serious penalty for creators that, if accumulated, can result in the permanent deletion of their channel. 

Lofi Girl refuted the copyright strike, which YouTube later admitted was made in error. In a reply tweet, the Team YouTube account said it “confirmed the takedown requests were abusive and terminated the claimants account” and that Lofi Girl’s videos would be reinstated. However, “it can sometimes take 24-48 hours for everything to be back to normal”. At time of writing, the videos still display error notices reading, “This live stream recording is not available”. 

While the Lofi Girl channel waits for its high-ranking streams to reappear, the account tweeted its disappointment with YouTube’s processes and the powerless position the company puts creators in. “We’re shocked and disappointed to see that there’s still not any kind of protection or manual review of these false claims,” Lofi Girl said. “At the end of the day, it was entirely out of our control, and the sad part is that there was no way to appeal beforehand/prevent it from happening.”

This is far from the first time YouTube’s content takedowns have caused concern. In February, VICE reported that YouTube and the London Metropolitan Police have an established workflow for the police to submit takedown requests for videos they deem to “incite violence”. This frequently results in the removal of UK rap and drill music videos, with YouTube approving nearly 97% of the Met’s 500-plus requests in 2021 alone. 

Find Lofi Girl’s full Twitter thread below.

Photo credit: Lofi Girl