Mukbang and diet-focused YouTubers are losing their ability to earn revenue on the platform as YouTube tightens its enforcement against such content.
Mukbang YouTuber Salbbaejo, who has 440,000 subscribers, announced Friday through the channel's community page that monetization had been suspended. "I don't know which videos will be flagged, so I've also stopped uploading," the creator said.
Salbbaejo said YouTube had recently tightened its guidelines on binge eating and eating disorders and was applying strict regulations to channels that had posted related content.
The creator added that the channel was working with the company to find a resolution.
YouTuber Miso, who has 100,000 subscribers, raised similar concerns Tuesday in a video titled "Why I had no choice but to delete four years' worth of YouTube videos."
Miso said the channel first received an email from YouTube about a guideline violation in mid-March, then received a notice in late March that monetization would be temporarily suspended following an additional violation alert. The creator also cited YouTube's tightened "eating disorder and content safety guidelines" as the cause.
After discussions with YouTube, Miso ended up deleting more than 300 videos — over half of the channel's total content.
"I made my videos with the intention of sharing how I overcame severe obesity and reflecting on my diet journey, but the revised guidelines focus not on the creator's intent, but on how teenagers and viewers at high risk of eating disorders receive that content," Miso said.
YouTube strengthened its eating disorder content guidelines in 2023. While the previous rules primarily restricted content that directly glorified or promoted eating disorders, the revised policy extended restrictions to content depicting eating behaviors that viewers might imitate.
The crackdown is expected to affect even the biggest names in mukbang, including Tzyyang, who has about 13.5 million subscribers, and Hibab, with about 1.72 million. Tzyyang drew wide attention for feats such as finishing 121 plates of conveyor-belt sushi in a single sitting, while Hibab holds an official record with the Korea Record Institute for eating 10 bowls of jjajangmyeon in 25 minutes.
Some observers say the ripple effects of YouTube's enforcement could extend to terrestrial broadcasters, general programming channels and cable TV. Both Tzyyang and Hibab had leveraged their YouTube popularity to appear on broadcast entertainment programs, where they continued to perform mukbang.
paq@heraldcorp.com
