Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Lofi Girl: YouTube apologises after popular study music video is removed from platform

Video, which has been viewed more than 668m times, was taken down following ‘false copyright strikes’

Isobel Lewis
Tuesday 12 July 2022 03:19 EDT
Comments
Youtuber asking opinions on abortion runs into former Planned Parenthood president

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

YouTube has apologised after deleting a hugely popular video from its platform.

The video is titled “lofi hip hop radio – beats to relax/study to” and shows a cartoon girl sat at her desk working while lyric-free study music plays.

It has been viewed more than 668 million times and is often used as a relaxation tool to help users while they complete their own tasks.

On Sunday (10 July), the people behind the channel, which has more than 10.7 million subscribers, tweeted that its most popular video had been removed due to “false copyright strikes”.

They shared a screenshot of their email from YouTube, which said that the clip “can no longer be played” on the website.

On Monday (11 July) morning, YouTube posted a response apologising for the mistake and confirming that the copyright claim was “abusive”.

“Confirmed the takedown requests were abusive & terminated the claimants account,” they tweeted.

YouTube confirmed that the clip had been removed by mistake
YouTube confirmed that the clip had been removed by mistake (Twitter)

“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.”

As of Tuesday (12 July) morning, the clip is still unable to stream.

Lofi Girl was created by French musician Dmitri in 2015. He used the username ChilledCow before changing it to Lofi Girl last year.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in