YouTube/H3 Podcast
- YouTube took down the August 7th H3 Podcast and a clip for breaking its "harassment policy."
- In the video, Ethan and Hila Klien discuss Daniel Keem's new girlfriend.
- Keem and Klien have been feuding on social media for years.
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The H3H3 Podcast, run by Ethan Klein, cannot upload on YouTube for a week after receiving a strike on their channel after poking fun at Daniel Keem, known as Keemstar and the host of YouTube's DramaAlert, and his new girlfriend.
In a statement to Insider, YouTube confirmed that it "removed a video from H3H3 for violating our harassment policy, which prohibits content degradingly sexualizing an individual." The channel has received its first strike and the H3 Podcast Highlights channel received a warning for uploading a shorter version of the video.
-The H3 Podcast (@theh3podcast) August 12, 2021
YouTube's harassment policy prohibits "content featuring non-consensual sex acts, unwanted sexualization or anything that graphically sexualizes or degrades an individual."
Keem announces he is dating a 20-year-old and his 'enemies' responded
On the August 4 episode of Faze Banks and Keem's podcast Mom's Basement, the 39-year-old creator with 5.8 million subscribers announced that he was dating a 20-year-old waitress he had met at a fan meetup. He claims that she did not know who Keem was before the event and attended it with her friend, who Keem says was a "super fan."
"Nothing was awkward about the situation whatsoever, everything's been totally fine and I don't feel like a f------ creep," Keemstar said. " I know other people are going to judge, I don't care what you f----- think."
-KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) August 6, 2021
Soon, other members of the YouTube community responded to the news of this relationship, condemning the age gap. Age gap relationships have drawn increasing scrutiny online in recent years, with many being framed by comentators as predatory.
YouTuber Trisha Paytas said "shame on the almost 40-year-old for doing this" in an August 5 video and tweeted about it. Ethan Klein, who hosts the three million subscriber channel H3 Podcast, responded to Paytas' video in the 46th installment of the H3 After Dark podcast and had someone call in pretending to be Keem's girlfriend, saying that he cries during sex and insinuating that he has small genitalia.
"The girl is only 20-years-old, she's a child," Klein said in the podcast. "This is about a 39-year-old creep, preying on a young girl."
Both Paytas and Klein have a long history of feuding with Keem online and have been consistent topics on his DramaAlert channel.
"The people that have a problem with it are already my enemies," Keem said in an August 7 Twitter.
"Ethan Klein and Trisha, I've been fighting with them for years," he said.
-KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) August 7, 2021
Keem pointed to perceived hypocrisy with Klein, tweeting a May 2019 interview with Steven Williams, known as YouTuber Boogie2988, who said they were dating a 20-year-old.
"You are out there, it's legal," Klein says in the video.
YouTube removed two H3 Podcast videos
On August 8, Keem tweeted a video (that has since been deleted) tagging YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and the company about what he claims is "blatant favoritism" in regards to their feud, feeling that he can't respond to Klein without breaking the site's Terms of Service with this new video.
"Why is Ethan Klein getting special treatment, explain it," Keem said in the now-deleted video. "Why is it other YouTubers versus Ethan Klein and YouTube staff?"
On Wednesday night, the H3 After Dark episode and the clip pretending to be Keemstar's girlfriend were taken down by YouTube. Each link now reads "This video has been removed for violating YouTube's policy on nudity or sexual content."
Keem responded with a Twitter video, saying "the stuff that is said on that podcast bullies and harasses other creators, would never fly on anybody else's channel." Klein tweeted back, writing "Keemstar, in the ultimate hypocrisy, has cried to YouTube about me making fun of his creepy ass dating a 20 year old."
Klein did not respond to a request for comment and Keem declined to comment.