Frequent flyers of YouTube were surprised, but not totally shocked, when in 2020 the controversial YouTuber LeafyIsHere, otherwise known as Calvin Lee Vail, was permanently banned from the site for violating the platform’s terms of service. 

Around that time YouTube had become more firm in enforcing its no-harassment policy, which until that point was flimsy at best. The straw that broke the camel’s back, however, was a series of criticisms LeafyIsHere hurled at fellow YouTuber and Twitch star Pokimane, otherwise known as Imane Anys.

By no means was it the first time LeafyIsHere chucked controversial comments at a fellow content creator. The YouTuber had become known for walking the thin line of what was and was not acceptable to say in a public forum since the rise of his popularity in 2015. Over the subsequent years he amassed a total of five million followers and used his time to comment on the lives of other content creators, mainly to insult them in one way or another. 

As the years went by and people grew to know his name, LeafyIsHere’s loose tongue started to get him in trouble. On several occasions he was slapped on the wrist by YouTube for violating their terms of service, but eventually he pushed the envelope one too many times and the platform banned him forever in 2020, deleting his account.

Why was LeafyIsHere permanently banned on YouTube?

The permanent termination came after he violated YouTube’s terms of service three times within a 90 day period. His eagerness to mix insults with compliments led to several instances of cyberbullying. YouTube did not comment on which videos caused them to put down their proverbial foot, but several Twitter users were quick to point at various instances in which LeafyIsHere willingly used derogatory language, such as the kind mentioned above. Not only that, but there were also instances in which he actively spoke of committing violence to others.

At the end of the day, in speaking with The Verge, a spokesperson for YouTube said, “We have strict policies that prohibit harassment on YouTube, and we remove content that violates our policies when flagged to our attention… Channels that repeatedly violate our policies will be terminated.”

What is LeafyIsHere up to now?

A year after being banned, a new channel appeared on YouTube called LeafyCast, and everyone seemed to believe it was the new LeafyIsHere channel. The account maintained irregular uploads until falling off the grid in the beginning of 2022. 

However, as recently as this month, a new video was uploaded to LeafyCast where the person behind the microphone was not Leafy, and instead an “employee” of his claiming to be his mouthpiece. 

In the video the unnamed employee went on to say that LeafyCast was never actually LeafyIsHere but instead just an account where past videos were re-uploaded, like a backup account. According to this person, LeafyIsHere contacted him personally and offered a proposition after seeing how well the account performed. As of this writing the account has almost 20,000 subscribers. The proposition was to man the trenches and update LeafyIsHere followers on the whereabouts of the former YouTuber. 

According to the newly uploaded video, LeafyIsHere, or should we say Calvin Vail, has plans to create his own video hosting website like YouTube where people won’t be confined to the same terms of services that led to his termination on YouTube.  

There’s no way of knowing whether LeafyCast’s claim of working with LeafyIsHere are genuine or a method of gaining new followers. After all, we thought the account was LeafyIsHere until now. Either way, it goes to show the impact — and the reach — LeafyIsHere had during his tenure on YouTube.

ncG1vNJzZmivlZy8tcDHoqqcp6aav6awjZympmeTmrmmrtGiq6Kdo2TEqa3TZp%2BaqKCau6awjK2mZpqRo7umsIyypq6spZeys3nLnpifsZmotaa%2BxGg%3D