Online community reacts to Leafy's YouTube ban as #freeleafy begins to trend 

The YouTube channel of Calvin Lee Vail, aka Leafy, has officially been terminated.

The move came in the aftermath of Leafy's relentless series of videos on popular streamer Imane 'Pokimane' Anys, where he criticised her and her entire fan base or tier 3 subs. The reasons behind the termination were cited as a violation of YouTube's policies, along with allegations of bullying and harassment.

The decision has come as a major blow for the YouTuber, who had recently returned from a lengthy hiatus, only for his account to be terminated on the 21st of August, 2020.

LeafyIsHere seems to have invited the wrath of Pokimane's simp fans, who allegedly mass reported his videos on the Twitch star, which led to YouTube taking stringent action against him.

While Pokimane simps may be rejoicing, Leafy's termination has now opened up a debate regarding the definition of what constitutes criticism in the sphere of content creation.

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YouTubers react to Leafy's termination

Leafy's YouTube termination has led to a plethora of reactions online. From YouTubers to fans, a large section of the online community has responded to this recent development.

YouTuber Pegasus released a video where he addresses a major underlying concern for most content creators as he posed pertinent questions:

There's always the underlying fear of who's next right, who's gonna disappear tomorrow, is my channel gonna be gone tomorrow, are we actually going to have to abide by even stricter guidelines because of this?

Jeremy Habley from The Quartering on YouTube also shared his thoughts on Leafy's termination from YouTube and explains what he believes actually happened:

Whether you like him or not, it really sucks to see this happen to another content creator .

I think this was a coordinated flagging campaign by Pokimane fans. He had made many videos on her and I was worried that some of them were getting little personal. I don't celebrate people getting de-platformed. Do I think Pokimane was behind it? Yes I do. Was she really? Probably not.

From these reactions, it is implied that Pokimane's tier 3 subs had a major role to play in the termination, and YouTuber Optimus addresses this in his reaction video:

I don't think it's a good thing to celebrate someone being de-platformed , I don't think it's a good idea to celebrate someone having their channel that they built for years be ripped away from them because they said things you didn't like about a person.

He also points out the fact that irrespective of Leafy tendency to take things a bit too far at times, his influence as a YouTuber has been immense:

Leafy basically helped popularise commentary in general . When you think of commentary, Leafy is kind of like a founding father in a way, to a lot of people. So his influence can't go unnoticed in a way. In all reality, I think this really shows a very scary side of YouTube, especially for the commentary community.

YouTube historically, has had their priorities wrong. YouTube historically, has made an ass of themselves, when it comes to actually addressing problems that the community has, head on.

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Twitter reacts to Leafy's termination

Ever since word got out that Leafy's YouTube channel had been terminated, several people took to Twitter to react to the news, as Leafy and #freeleafy began to trend online:

Check out some of the reactions related to #freeleafy below:

People also took major offence to h3h3's tweet, where he posted a picture of him alongside YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

Meanwhile there were also others who seemed to support YouTube's decision to terminate Leafy's YouTube channel:

While there seems to exist a strong duality of perception pertaining to YouTube's decision to terminate Leafy's account, it has certainly opened up a Pandora's box related to free speech and criticism on social media platforms.

The sudden termination of Leafy's channel also hints at a problematic system of prevalent censorship which exists in a digital age, as content creators now begin to question their own security and future.

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