Why Did "Coco" Get Taken Down? PewDiePie's Cocomelon Diss Track Has Been Banned

When Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie (whose full name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg) released his highly-anticipated Cocomelon diss track titled "Coco," people became obsessed with the song that hurled insults at the popular kids' songs. However, just weeks after its Feb. 14, 2021 upload, the diss track appeared to have been removed by YouTube.

So why did "Coco" get taken down?

In the music video, PewDiePie completely trashed Cocomelon's content and made fun of kids who watch it. One line said, “Your audience is just a bunch of motherf--king virgins." Another one said, "F--k everything you love, and most of all, f--k you" — both of which seem to violate YouTube guidelines regarding offensive or vulgar language in videos including children.

Not to mention, PewDiePie gave plastic weapons to kids, who then used them to physically assault a watermelon.

PewDiePie previously clarified that the children mimed to a clean version of the song while filming "Coco" — so they weren't actually swearing or listening to the curse-filled track. But evidently, PewDiePie's diss track still took things a step too far for YouTube's liking.

Since "Coco" was removed from its platform, the YouTube team has elaborated on their decision. 

They explained that "Coco" was removed based on a guideline involving child safety because it was considered to be "content that targets young minors and families but contains sexual themes, violence, obscene, or other mature themes not suitable for young audiences," according to a tweet from the YouTube team.

Furthermore, the diss track violated YouTube guidelines regarding harassment and cyberbullying because it "repeatedly encourages abusive audience behavior" and "harms the YouTube community by persistently inciting hostility between creators for personal financial gain."

It was also determined that PewDiePie's "Coco" was inappropriate for children because it appeared like it was made for kids.

“Our policies prohibit content that leads to repeated patterns of harassment on- and off-platform,” a YouTube spokesperson told The Verge. “Following a review, we’ve removed the video in question for violating those policies because they had the effect of encouraging abusive fan behavior."

Unsurprisingly, YouTube users have been re-uploading "Coco" since it was removed — but don't expect those to stick around for long. "Also, any reuploads of the original, including full length or partial reuploads, clips, etc. will be removed too," the YouTube team tweeted. "Still images are OK."

PewDiePie's fans noticed in October 2020 that his content has been "shadowbanned"— which according to HubSpot, is "the act of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from an online community so that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned."

As it turned out, PewDiePie's content not appearing in YouTube's search was due to a glitch, which YouTube fixed after a day. 

The Swedish musician also had two of his songs, "Congratulations" and "B---h Lasagna," banned from India's YouTube channel for their controversial lyrics.

So far, PewDiePie has not publicly addressed YouTube taking down his song "Coco."

However, in a video titled "I Love Kids," which was published on Feb. 17, he explained that "Coco" was the final installment in the fake rivalry between his YouTube channel and Cocomelon's.

"I saw this as ending the meme," he said. "I am not going to continue with it because 1) it wouldn't be funny and 2) I don't actually care about Cocomelon."