Breaking Down the Controversy Surrounding YouTuber Cody Ko

TPopular YouTuber commentator Cody Ko, who has over nine million subscribers across five channels, is embroiled in an ongoing controversy after fellow YouTuber Tana Mongeau alleged that he had sex with her when she was 17 and he was 25.

Mongeau, 26, raised the accusation in May during a live recording of his podcast Canceled, which she co-hosts with another internet personality, Brooke Schofield. During the show, Mongeau said that she slept with Ko when she was 17, in response to a question from an audience member.

“Oh my God, no one looks at me. Cody Ko,” she said on stage in a video that was recorded at the show and later posted online. “I can say that. I was literally 17.”

Although Mongeau’s comment circulated on social media and was covered in publications such as Rolling Stone, he mostly went unnoticed. In July, however, another YouTuber, D’Angelo Wallace, brought more attention to the issue when he posted a video titled “An Uncomfortable Conversation About Cody Ko” on his drama channel. In the video, which received more than two million views in less than a week, Wallace urged viewers to take Mongeau’s statement seriously and not let it be “an open secret and swept under the rug.”

Breaking Down Tana Mongeau’s Allegation Against Cody Ko

Mongeau gained popularity online for her “storytime” videos, where she regaled audiences with elaborate stories, and has a history of creating sometimes controversial content with other creators. In 2018, Mongeau attempted to host a rival creator convention to VidCon and named it TanaCon. But the event ended in disaster due to disorganization and underestimation of the number of people present. According to New York Magazinethe reserved venue had capacity for only 5,000 people, but around 20,000 people arrived and I waited in bubbles California heat for hours to check in. Some ended up being rejected when the event was cancelled.

Mongeau focused on doing the Canceled podcast with Schofield. On the show, they talk about their opinions on the creator’s drama, interview other internet personalities and, lately, call out other influencers when they feel necessary. Recently, Schofield used the platform to call out her ex-boyfriend, Clinton Kane, and her former friend, radio host Zach Sang.

Mongeau addressed the allegation after the live event in a June episode of Canceled.

“This isn’t just some crazy tea. I hooked up with Cody Ko when I was 17 and he was 25,” she said. “Yes, it happened. At 25 now, I would never do something like that, so I’m like, ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’”

According to United States Department of Health and Human Services, in Florida, where Mongeau claims the two had sex, the law for statutory rape says: “A child under the age of 16 may not consent to sexual activity, regardless of the age of the defendant. A child who is at least 16 years of age and less than 18 years of age cannot consent to sexual activity if the defendant is 24 years of age or older.”

Mongeau said on her podcast that although she doesn’t consider the incident a trauma, looking back on it as an adult, she sees that she was “taken advantage of.” Speaking on Trisha Paytas’ podcast on June 20, Mongeau said that after sharing her story, the negative reaction from people online was “heartbreaking.”

“After it started going viral, seeing so many people not believing me, thinking, ‘It’s Tana, so who cares’… I started to feel bad for so many other girls who maybe look up to me and want to tell the truth. and seeing the way people just don’t believe others,” she said.

She added that she feels Ko’s widespread popularity has protected him, at her expense. “I know for sure, if you replaced Cody Ko with someone people didn’t really like? I would get a lot more sympathy than the amount of people in this industry who want to protect him.”

Mongeau declined to comment for this story.

Why D’Angelo Wallace spoke out about Mongeau’s claim

Wallace told TIME he was prepared for his video to reignite the fire of that speech. But he acknowledges that he “should not have made” the video to bring Mongeau’s allegation to light.

“I’m privileged to be heard, but that doesn’t mean it should take a D’Angelo Wallace video before someone’s allegations about really heinous things are taken seriously,” he says. An avid consumer of online content, Wallace says he was surprised by the noticeably absent conversation about what Mongeau said, which led him to make the video.

In it, Wallace implores Ko to address the allegation or at least acknowledge the storm blowing in his comments section. Even Ko’s wife, Kelsey Kreppel, is facing pressure to say something as people online fill the comments section of her page. Ko did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.

“You have an obligation to, at the very least, call out the misogyny, victim-blaming, and every kind of cognitive dissonance that comes from your audience in the name of defending you against allegations that you are too cowardly to address,” Wallace said in the video. .

In the video, Wallace noted that although Mongeau has a history of being an unpleasant character on the internet, that doesn’t excuse people from mistreating her or refusing to believe her story. Mongeau was met with “the most stinging victim-blaming I’ve seen in years,” he said, adding that she was “rejected, disbelieved, and disbelieved before anyone gave her a chance because ‘it’s Tana.’”

see more information: Breaking Down Clinton Kane and Brooke Schofield’s Breakup Drama on TikTok

Pressure grows for Cody Ko to speak out as other YouTubers weigh in

Wallace’s video prompted other members of the YouTube community to continue the conversation about Ko and Mongeau. Popular commentary channels like Philip DeFranco (six million subscribers) and Cr1TiKaL (15 million subscribers) have also made videos about the allegations. His videos, along with Wallace’s, encouraged others online to pressure Ko to make a statement.

As comments about Mongeau’s allegation increased, Ko lost more than 160,000 followers in a month, according to SocialBlade, a third-party website that tracks social media user analytics. Podcast features Enya Umanzor and Drew Philips, whose show Emergency Intercom was produced by Ko’s company, TMG Studios, announced on July 19 that it now plans to produce it independently.

Brittany Broski, a TikToker who recently collaborated with him on videos for his channel and hers, recently posted a statement on her Instagram Story earlier this week.

In Wallace’s video, he shared a clip of a former YouTuber, Gabbie Hanna, allegedly discussing the incident on another podcast, saying that she told Ko that Mongeau was underage. In the clip, she says, “One time, I told a guy, I saw him kissing a girl who was underage at a party, and I pulled him aside and I was like, ‘Hey man, you probably don’t know… .I know she looks a little older…she’s underage. Careful.'”

Another drama channel creator, Daniel Keem (better known as Keemstar), posted in X that he spoke to Hanna about the incident when it happened. “Years ago, Gabbie Hanna told me in an unofficial statement that 25-year-old Cody Ko was kissing 17-year-old Tana Mongeau at Playlist Live in Florida,” the post reads. He also writes that he spoke with Mongeau to confirm the story and got Hanna’s permission to share that information.

Ko has a lot of decisions to make about how to manage the mounting pressure, says Karen North, clinical professor of communication at USC Annenberg. North, whose expertise lies in social media, online security and reputation management, says it’s understandable that Ko has yet to release a statement. “He’s in a very complex and threatening legal situation right now,” she says. “Because of the immediacy of the digital age, people want immediate feedback, reactions, atonement, and accountability.” She adds: “The people we are demanding these statements from have to hear from their lawyers first about whether or not making any statements would cause them legal danger or widen the scandal.”