13 jul 2022 om 09:45<!–]†
YouTube mistakenly took the music channel Lofi Girl offline this week after false copyright claims. The channel is known for its livestream Lofi hip hop radio – beats to study to. The streams of the account are now back.
By: our tech editorsLofi Girl has several such streams, where people can listen to music. One of the streams flagged for copyright infringement has been playing music continuously for the past two years.
The claims were filed by FMC Music, a Malaysian record company. After the makers of Lofi Girl filed a counterclaim, YouTube manually investigated FMC Music’s complaint. Then it turned out that the company had no rights over the music.
YouTube bid on Twitter apologize for taking the channel offline by mistake. “We have confirmed that the claims were unlawful and that the channel was wrongfully taken offline,” the service wrote. “We’ve cleared the blockage and restored the videos. It may take up to 48 hours for everything to return to normal.”
FMC Music also claims to be a victim in this story. A spokesperson tells the local news site malaysiakini that hackers gained access to the label’s YouTube account. They would then have made false claims. The label has reported the incident to YouTube.
False claims have long been a problem on YouTube
It happens regularly that false claims are made to YouTube, which more often leads to channel closures and video blocking. Recently, game developer Bungie sued another YouTube user for making nearly 100 false claims about other YouTube channels.
Lofi Girl has also had to deal with it before. The channel calls for a stricter vetting process for copyright claims on YouTube. “This exposes the underlying issue on the platform again,” the channel reports Twitter† “It’s 2022 and there are still countless small makers facing false claims on videos and live streams on a daily basis.”