TechLead has been taking down critical videos

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—by Protos Staff

According to TechLead, a.k.a Patrick Shyu, the ‘ex-Google, ex-Meta tech lead’ who started a successful YouTube career after leaving Facebook, he’s been taking down any videos that are critical of his behavior by falsely claiming copyright violations.

Shyu, who once launched a cryptocurrency by lying to users about how it was being bootstrapped, has seen his profile diminish since being exposed by fellow YouTube creator Coffeezilla three years ago.

But making false promises and running off with a significant profit from a crypto project only to never mention it again hasn’t stopped him from constantly posting on YouTube. Indeed, since his failed crypto launch, he’s released a series of pessimistic videos, with titles ranging from Why Coding is Dead to AGI Achieved It’s Over. He’s also posted at least six videos claiming that he’s either quitting or retiring from both tech and YouTube.

He doesn’t appear to have done either.

Not the first time

While this is absolutely the first time that TechLead has publicly admitted to abusing the DMCA system, it isn’t the first time he’s tried to have well-known video exposés taken down. He even stated in a now-deleted video that he, “tends to copyright strike down any exposé videos” because he wants to know who is behind them.

Years ago, after Coffeezilla covered TechLead’s Million Token scam, TechLead called Coffeezilla racist, attempted to dox him, and sent out copyright takedown claims to other creators covering the topic.

Read more: Ben ‘BitBoy’ Armstrong baits media with dramatic YouTube ‘quit’

YouTube channel getting rekt

Though TechLead has deleted the video in which he admitted to abusing the DMCA copyright takedown system, that isn’t the only video he’s deleted. According to the social analytics website SocialBlade, TechLead has deleted dozens of videos over the past few days, losing millions and millions of views seemingly overnight. This has taken his channel from a B- rating to a D- rating.

Protos asked YouTube how it intends to respond to false DMCA takedown claims and was told that “False claims and misuse of the removal request webform when someone submits a copyright removal request can result in the suspension of an account or other legal consequences.” It’s unclear if YouTube will suspend or take legal action against TechLead.

It’s worth pointing out that TechLead’s Million Token is down over 99% from all-time highs reached in July of 2021.

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