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hololive Virtual YouTubers Akai Haato, Kiryu Coco Suspended For 3 Weeks Due to 'Inappropriate Remarks'

Cover Corp, the company which runs the Virtual YouTuber agency hololive, issued formal statements in English, Japanese, and simplified Chinese on Sunday regarding the talents Akai Haato and Kiryu Coco. Due to "inappropriate remarks" they made on stream, they will be suspended for three weeks from livestreaming activities.

According to the statement, "It was determined that both had divulged confidential YouTube channel analytics information on their respective live streams, used said data for their own purposes, and made statements that were insensitive to residents of certain regions."

Although Cover Corp found that neither of the talents acted with deliberate intentions, they still violated guidelines and "were not sufficiently aware of their position and the level of influence they might have in their actions."

Cover Corp emphasizes that its guideline training will be more comprehensive going forward, and that they will "continue to to work with even greater care to ensure that such an incident does not happen again."

Akai Haato's livestream was set to private at the time of this article's writing. The video archive of Kiryu Coco's Thursday livestream has been cut at the 2:47 mark. Comments on the video infer that during the six minutes of deleted footage, Coco commented on her channel's viewership demographics by region. YouTube Analytics lists Taiwan and China as separate regions.

In addition to the above statement, Cover Corp also issued a separate statement on its bilibili account emphasizing that the livestream does not represent the views of the company and stating that Cover Corp "firmly supports the One-China principle."

Proponents of the One-China principle seek reunification between Taiwan and China under the same sovereign state. This stance is opposed by supporters of the Taiwan independence movement, who seek to establish a Taiwanese identity separate from China.

Cover Corp was founded in 2016, and the first generation of hololive performers debuted in 2018. Over 50 Virtual YouTubers currently belong to hololive; according to the agency's English website, it has around 4.4 million fans on YouTube and 4 million on bilibili. The talents perform using intricate 2D and 3D avatars provided by the company. The first generation of hololive China debuted in October 2019, and hololive English debuted earlier this month.

Sources: Cover Corp official website (English) (Japanese), hololive's bilibili account (Link 2)