The widely beloved ‘lofi hip-hop radio – beats to relax/ study to’ channel on YouTube was taken down after what the channel owner has called a “false copyright strike”. The channel emerged at last, to the delight of many, on the Rumble streaming platform on Friday morning.
Lofi girl experienced its first interruption after two years of streaming back in July of this year.
The constant stream features the image of a Ghibli-Esque young woman studying night and day with her cat, accompanied by relaxing lofi (low fidelity) hip-hop beats. Over those years, the channel became an important part of internet culture, with its own spin-off communities, including a 30,000-member r/LofiGirl subreddit and a 700,000-member Lofi Girl Discord.
Not only has the channel become a cultural phenomenon, but it was quite a success for the very platform that banned it. With over 668 million views, the stream was one of YouTube’s most popular draws for people who wanted to throw on some mood music for work or relaxation but to take part in the live chat as well.
The original strike was allegedly due to a “false copyright strike” from Malaysian label FMC Music. In response, fans of Lofi Girl circulated the tag #BringBackLofiGirl to get YouTube’s attention. Some fans went so far as to spam and troll the Malaysian label.
As per Metro:
Lofi Girl told TechCrunch that all of the channel’s music is released through its record label, Lofi Records, so they have the necessary rights to share it and YouTube decided it was not in violation of copyright laws.
YouTube confirmed that the takedown requests were ‘abusive & terminated the claimants account’.
‘We’ve resolved the strikes + reinstated your vids – it can sometimes take 24-48 hours for everything to be back to normal! so sorry this happened & thx for your patience as we sorted it out,’ said YouTube replying to the tweet.
Despite YouTube’s attempts to make things right, Lofi Girl seems to maintain doubts about the platform.
‘This event has shone a light on an underlying problem on the platform: It’s 2022, and there are countless smaller creators out there, many of which are engaged in this discussion, that continue to be hit daily by these false claims on both videos and live streams,’ Lofi Girl wrote in a tweet.
While creators like Lofi Girl grapple with the abuse of YouTube’s copyright infringement policies, the up-and-coming YouTube alternative Rumble has been creating a space where the sorts of channels can carry on unimpeded.
Lofi Girl showed up on Rumble Friday morning, drawing immediate attention from the Rumble user base.
Follow the Channel HERE, and show Lofi Girl that the Rumble community is happy to have them.
Ryan DeLarme is a disillusioned journalist navigating a labyrinth of political corruption, overreaching corporate influence, high finance, compromised media, and the planned destruction of our constitutional republic. He is also a Host and Founder at Vigilant News. His writing has been featured in American Thinker, Winter Watch, Underground Newswire, and Stillness in the Storm. He also has written scripts for television series featured on Rise.tv. Ryan enjoys gardening, creative writing, and fighting to SAVE AMERICA
