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The common commentary YouTuber Cody Ko, who has over 9 million subscribers throughout 5 channels, has been embroiled in an ongoing controversy after fellow YouTuber Tana Mongeau alleged that he had intercourse along with her when she was 17 and he was 25.
Mongeau, 26, raised the allegation in May, throughout a reside recording of her podcast Cancelled, which she co-hosts with one other web character, Brooke Schofield. During the present, Mongeau stated she slept with Ko when she was 17 in response to a query from an viewers member.
“Oh my god, nobody have a look at me. Cody Ko,” she stated onstage in a video that was recorded from the present and later posted on-line. “I can say that. I used to be actually 17.”
While Mongeau’s remark made rounds on social media and was coated in publications like Rolling Stone, it largely flew beneath the radar. In July, nonetheless, one other YouTuber, D’Angelo Wallace, introduced the problem to wider consideration when he posted a video titled “An Uncomfortable Conversation About Cody Ko” to his drama channel. In the video, which obtained over two million views in lower than per week, Wallace known as on his viewers to take Mongeau’s declare critically and never let or not it’s “an open secret and swept beneath the rug.”
Unpacking Tana Mongeau’s allegation in opposition to Cody Ko
Mongeau gained recognition on-line for her “storytime” movies, the place she’d regale audiences with elaborate tales, and has a historical past making typically controversial content material with different creators. In 2018, Mongeau tried to host a rival creator conference to VidCon and named it TanaCon. But the occasion led to catastrophe as a consequence of disorganization and an underestimation of how many individuals would attend. According to New York Magazine, the venue that was booked might solely maintain 5,000 folks however an estimated 20,000 folks arrived and waited in blistering California heat for hours to test in. Some have been ultimately turned away when the occasion was canceled.
Mongeau pivoted to creating the Cancelled podcast with Schofield. On the present, they discuss their opinions on creator drama, interview fellow web personalities, and as of late, name out different influencers after they really feel it is necessary. Recently, Schofield used the platform to name out her ex-boyfriend, Clinton Kane, and her former buddy, radio character Zach Sang.
Mongeau addressed the allegation after the reside occasion on a June episode of Cancelled.
“This isn’t just a few loopy tea. I connected with Cody Ko after I was 17 and he was 25,” she stated. “Yeah it occurred. At 25 now, I’d by no means do something like that so I’m like, ‘What the f-ck was incorrect with you?’”
According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in Florida, the place Mongeau says the 2 had intercourse, the legislation for statutory rape says, “A baby beneath 16 years of age can not consent to sexual exercise, whatever the age of the defendant. A baby who’s not less than 16 years of age and fewer than 18 years of age can not consent to sexual exercise if the defendant is 24 years of age or older.”
Mongeau stated on her podcast that whereas she doesn’t take into account the incident a trauma, recalling it as an grownup, she sees that she was “taken benefit of.” Speaking on Trisha Paytas’ podcast on June 20, Mongeau stated that after sharing her story, the damaging response from folks on-line was “heartbreaking.”
“After it began going viral, seeing so many individuals not believing me, being like, ‘It’s Tana, so who cares’ … I began feeling dangerous for thus many different women who possibly look as much as me and need to converse their fact and see the way in which that folks simply don’t consider folks,” she stated.
She added that she felt Ko’s widespread recognition has protected him, at her expense. “I do know for a truth, if you happen to swapped out Cody Ko with somebody that folks didn’t like that a lot? I’d be receiving a lot extra sympathy versus the quantity of individuals on this trade who need to defend him.”
Mongeau declined to remark for this story.
Why D’Angelo Wallace spoke up about Mongeau’s declare
Wallace tells TIME he was ready for his video to rekindle the fireplace of this discourse. But he acknowledges that he “shouldn’t have needed to” make the video to carry Mongeau’s allegation to gentle.
“I’m privileged sufficient to be listened to, however that doesn’t imply it ought to take a D’Angelo Wallace video earlier than somebody’s allegations of actually heinous issues are taken critically,” he says. An avid on-line content material client, Wallace says he was stunned by the noticeably absent dialog about what Mongeau stated, which prompted him to make the video.
In it, Wallace implores Ko to handle the allegation or not less than acknowledge the storm blowing by way of his feedback part. Even Ko’s spouse, Kelsey Kreppel, is dealing with strain to say one thing as folks on-line fill the feedback part on her web page. Ko didn’t instantly reply to TIME’s request for remark.
“You have an obligation to, on the very least, name out the misogyny, the victim-blaming, and all method of cognitive dissonance that’s coming out of your viewers within the title of defending you in opposition to allegations that you simply’re too cowardly to handle,” Wallace stated within the video.
In the video, Wallace famous that though Mongeau has a historical past of being an unlikeable character on the web, it doesn’t excuse folks from mistreating her or refusing to consider her story. Mongeau has been met with “essentially the most vitriolic sufferer blaming that I’ve seen in years,” he stated, including that she’s been “dismissed, discredited, and disbelieved earlier than anyone gave her an opportunity as a result of ‘it’s Tana.’”
Read More: Breaking Down the Clinton Kane and Brooke Schofield Break Up Drama on TikTok
Pressure grows for Cody Ko to talk out as different YouTubers weigh in
Wallace’s video prompted others within the YouTube neighborhood to choose up the dialog about Ko and Mongeau. Popular commentary channels like Philip DeFranco (six million subscribers) and Cr1TiKaL (15 million subscribers) additionally made movies in regards to the allegations. Their movies, together with Wallace’s, have galvanized others on-line to place strain on Ko to make an announcement.
As commentary over Mongeau’s allegation has grown, Ko has misplaced greater than 160,000 followers in a month, in response to SocialBlade, a 3rd party web site that tracks social media customers analytics. Podcast hosts Enya Umanzor and Drew Philips, whose present Emergency Intercom was produced beneath Ko’s firm TMG Studios, introduced on July 19 that they now plan to provide it independently.
Brittany Broski, a TikToker who not too long ago collaborated with him in movies for his channel and her personal, not too long ago put out an announcement on her Instagram story earlier this week.
In Wallace’s video, he shared a clip of a former YouTuber, Gabbie Hanna, reportedly discussing the incident on one other podcast, saying she instructed Ko that Mongeau was underage. In the clip, she says, “One time, I instructed a man, I noticed him making out with a lady at a party who was underage, and I pulled him apart and I used to be like, ‘Hey man, you in all probability don’t know—I do know she, like, seems to be slightly older—she’s underage. Watch it.’”
Another drama channel creator, Daniel Keem (higher referred to as Keemstar), posted on X that he spoke to Hanna in regards to the incident when it occurred. “Years in the past, Gabbie Hanna instructed me in an off-record assertion {that a} 25-year-old Cody Ko was kissing a 17-year-old Tana Mongeau at Playlist Live in Florida,” the submit reads. He additionally writes that he spoke with Mongeau to verify the story and acquired permission from Hanna to share this info.
Ko has numerous choices to make about managing the rising strain, says Karen North, a medical professor of communication at USC Annenberg. North, whose experience lies in social media, on-line security, and fame administration, says it’s comprehensible why Ko hasn’t launched an announcement simply but. “He’s in a really complicated and really threatening authorized state of affairs proper now,” she says. “Because of the immediacy of the digital age, folks need speedy feedback, reactions, atonement, and accountability.” She provides: “The those who we’re demanding these statements from must take heed to their attorneys first about whether or not or not making any assertion would trigger them both authorized peril or amplify the scandal.”
