YouTube’s sweeping expansion of its community guidelines and advertising policies on eating disorders and binge eating is sending ripples through the creator community, especially for the mukbang YouTubers who film themselves eating copious amounts of food in Korea.
According to multiple sources, some mukbang and diet content creators have had their channels demonetized or had large numbers of videos removed.
YouTuber “DietJo,” who has around 447,000 subscribers as of Tuesday, was recently blocked from monetizing on the channel following YouTube’s tightening of its eating disorder guidelines. The creator said video uploads have also been temporarily halted to prevent further penalties.
Diet YouTuber “Miso,” who has around 104,000 subscribers, also received a notice of a guideline violation. The creator filed an appeal and decided to voluntarily delete 339 of the channel’s 667 videos, more than half of the total.
The news comes after YouTube revised its guidelines on content related to eating disorders. The platform is restricting advertising revenue for content depicting eating behaviors that teenagers or other viewers may be at risk of imitating, namely binge eating, excessive stockpiling of food, extreme calorie restriction and repeated cyclic weight loss.
YouTube is also reportedly applying rules based not only on creators’ intentions but on the broader context and potential impact on viewers of elements including the videos themselves, titles, thumbnails and tags.
Amid the tightening of platform rules, prominent mukbang YouTuber Tzuyang drew attention with remarks in a recent video.
Mukbang YouTuber Tzuyang, famed for her binge-eating content, says she will "become a YouTuber who eats a moderate amount" during a recent video.SCREEN CAPTURE
“It seems like eating a lot isn’t the trend these days,” Tzuyang said. “From now on, I’ll become a YouTuber who eats a moderate amount.”
Tzuyang did continue with mukbang content much like the ones in previous videos immediately after making the remarks, but industry observers see the episode as an example of the market’s sensitivity to changes in platform policies.
YouTube maintains that it does not uniformly penalize content made for educational or documentary purposes or ordinary videos featuring meals or introducing food.
Channels penalized so far have primarily featured personal dieting experiences and extreme weight-loss regimens. It has yet to be confirmed whether major mukbang creators focused simply on eating large quantities of food, such as Tzuyang and Heebab, have been directly subject to penalties.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
