This week, we have another wild story from the drama-tuber scene. Reporter Steven Asarch spoke with some of the biggest creators in the YouTube commentary space — SomeOrdinaryGamers and the Internet Anarchist — as well as a smaller channel, the Dark Company, to discuss their experiences with a notorious YouTuber known as TechLead.
For the uninitiated, TechLead is run by Patrick Shyu, who started the channel in 2016 and claims to be a former software engineer at Google and Facebook. Shyu is known for basically being a caricature of the tech-bro-misogynist, saying things like “no one asked for women programmers” and that he “rejected all women on the spot and trashed their résumés in front of them” while working at Google.
In an interview, Shyu told Passionfruit that TechLead is just a “fictional persona built to gain attention” and that anyone watching should “take his words with a grain or large amount of salt.” But as Steven puts it in his piece, “Shyu’s other controversies cannot be explained away as a mustachio-twirling villain for clicks.”
Though Shyu claims to be “not against constructive forms of criticism or free speech,” he has sent copyright notices to three YouTubers who have created critical content about him. Shyu has also been pretty open about using YouTube’s copyright system to get anonymous creators’ names and identities.
In short, the story shows how easily YouTube’s copyright system can potentially be exploited to affect all creators, big and small. Read more about it below.
– Grace Stanley, Deputy Editor
In Today’s Newsletter:
- Multiple Creators Accuse YouTuber TechLead of Copyright Abuse
- Creators Shill Merch and Fan-Fic In Wake of Trump Assassination Attempt
- A Key Resource for Creators Has Vanished
- Say Hello to the New European Influencer Marketing Alliance
- How To Change Your TikTok Username When You Need To Rebrand
