Fans of lo-fi music across the world were upset after several livestreams on the YouTube channel Lofi Girl was removed from the streaming platform.
On Sunday (10 July), Lofi Girl has taken to its official Twitter account to announce that they can no longer play the livestreams after a Malaysian music company named FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia lodged a copyright strike against them.
“Lofi radios have been taken down because of false copyright strikes, hopefully YouTube will sort this out quickly,” they wrote in the tweet.
The lofi radios have been taken down because of false copyright strikes, hopefully @YouTubeCreators @YouTube will sort this quickly… pic.twitter.com/X01hL6jT2N
— Lofi Girl (@lofigirl) July 10, 2022
They also attached a screenshot of an email stating that its video titled “lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to” received a copyright strike due to a complaint by FMC Music Sdn Bhd Malaysia, a company based in Kuala Lumpur.
The video is a widely-recognisable animation of a girl studying at her desk with headphones on, and it is popular for its calming music that people enjoy listening to while studying or working.
However, the removal did not stop there and Business Insider reported that another one of Lofi Girl’s popular streams titled, “beats to sleep/chill to” was also removed as a result of a copyright violation claim.
The copyright strike is a policy implemented by YouTube as a way to protect content creators from copyright infringement while complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
YouTube practices a “three strikes” rule, where content creators will have their channel taken down if three copyright strikes are made against them. This policy has been a common issue for YouTube and its creators as bad actors often falsely report videos without proof of infringement.
Meanwhile, YouTube has responded to the issue and apologised for allowing this incident to happen. It added that it will take 24-48 hours for the stream to be restored.
confirmed 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 ❤️🩹
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) July 11, 2022
It also said that it has withdrew the copyright strikes that were issued to the account after the false report.
Meanwhile, angry fans have taken to FMC Music’s socials to slam the company for alleged complaint against the YouTube channel, along with the hashtag #BringBackLofiGirl.
As of the time of writing, FMC Music has yet to issue any response to the incident.
