Breaking Down the Controversy Surrounding YouTuber Cody Ko

The popular commentary YouTuber Cody Ko, who has over nine million subscribers across five channels, has been 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 allegation in May, during a live recording of her podcast Cancelled, which she co-hosts with another internet personality, Brooke Schofield. During the show, Mongeau said she slept with Ko when she was 17 in response to a question from an audience member.

“Oh my god, no one look at me. Cody Ko,” she said onstage in a video that was recorded from the show and later posted online. “I can say that. I was literally 17.”

While Mongeau’s comment made rounds on social media and was covered in publications like Rolling Stone, it mostly flew under the radar. In July, however, another YouTuber, D’Angelo Wallace, brought the issue to wider attention when he posted a video titled “An Uncomfortable Conversation About Cody Ko” to his drama channel. In the video, which received over two million views in less than a week, Wallace called on his viewers to take Mongeau's claim seriously and not let it be “an open secret and swept under the rug.”

Unpacking Tana Mongeau’s allegation against Cody Ko

Mongeau gained popularity online for her “storytime” videos, where she’d regale audiences with elaborate stories, and has a history making 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 an underestimation of how many people would attend. According to New York Magazine, the venue that was booked could only hold 5,000 people but an estimated 20,000 people arrived and waited in blistering California heat for hours to check in. Some were eventually turned away when the event was canceled.

Mongeau pivoted to making the Cancelled podcast with Schofield. On the show, they talk about their opinions on creator drama, interview fellow internet personalities, and as of late, call out other influencers when they feel it's necessary. Recently, Schofield used the platform to call out her ex-boyfriend, Clinton Kane, and her former friend, radio personality Zach Sang.

Mongeau addressed the allegation after the live event on a June episode of Cancelled.

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

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in Florida, where Mongeau says the two had sex, the law for statutory rape says, “A child under 16 years of age cannot 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 while she doesn’t consider the incident a trauma, recalling 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, being like, ‘It’s Tana, so who cares’ … I started feeling bad for so many other girls who maybe look up to me and want to speak their truth and see the way that people just don’t believe people,” she said. 

She added that she felt Ko’s widespread popularity has protected him, at her expense. “I know for a fact, if you swapped out Cody Ko with someone that people didn’t like that much? I would be receiving so much more sympathy versus the amount of people in this industry who want to protect him.”

Mongeau declined to comment for this story.

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

Wallace tells TIME he was prepared for his video to rekindle the fire of this discourse. But he recognizes that he “should not have had to” make the video to bring Mongeau’s allegation to light. 

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

In it, Wallace implores Ko to address the allegation or at least acknowledge the storm blowing through his comments section. Even Ko’s wife, Kelsey Kreppel, is facing pressure to say something as people online fill the comments section on 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, the victim-blaming, and all manner of cognitive dissonance that’s coming from your audience in the name of defending you against allegations that you’re too cowardly to address,” Wallace said in the video. 

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

Read More: Breaking Down the Clinton Kane and Brooke Schofield Break Up Drama on TikTok

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

Wallace’s video prompted others in the YouTube community to pick up the conversation about Ko and Mongeau. Popular commentary channels like Philip DeFranco (six million subscribers) and Cr1TiKaL (15 million subscribers) also made videos about the allegations. Their videos, along with Wallace’s, have galvanized others online to put pressure on Ko to make a statement.

As commentary over Mongeau’s allegation has grown, Ko has lost more than 160,000 followers in a month, according to SocialBlade, a third party site that tracks social media users analytics. Podcast hosts Enya Umanzor and Drew Philips, whose show Emergency Intercom was produced under Ko's company TMG Studios, announced on July 19 that they now plan to produce it independently.

Brittany Broski, a TikToker who recently collaborated with him in videos for his channel and her own, recently put out a statement 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 another podcast, saying she told Ko that Mongeau was underage. In the clip, she says, “One time, I told a guy, I saw him making out with a girl at a party who was underage, and I pulled him aside and I was like, ‘Hey man, you probably don’t know—I know she, like, looks a little older—she’s underage. Watch it.’”

Another drama channel creator, Daniel Keem (better known as Keemstar), posted on X that he spoke to Hanna about the incident when it happened. “Years ago, Gabbie Hanna told me in an off-record statement that a 25-year-old Cody Ko was kissing a 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 permission from Hanna to share this information.

Ko has a lot of decisions to make about managing the growing pressure, says Karen North, a clinical professor of communication at USC Annenberg. North, whose expertise lies in social media, online safety, and reputation management, says it is understandable why Ko hasn’t released a statement just yet. “He's in a very complex and very threatening legal situation right now,” she says. “Because of the immediacy of the digital age, people want immediate comments, reactions, atonement, and accountability.” She adds: “The people that we're demanding these statements from have to listen to their lawyers first about whether or not making any statement would cause them either legal peril or amplify the scandal.”