Borderlands 3 YouTuber's channel disappears amidst Take-Two investigation over leaks
After reports 2K Games targeted videos with takedown notices.
Earlier this month, the Borderlands 3 community was in uproar after YouTuber Matt "SupMatto" Somers, a prominent Borderlands content creator, published a video claiming Take-Two had sent private investigators to his house over Borderlands 3 leaks covered on his channel. Take-Two confirmed it was investigating Somers for profiting from breaking their policies and "illegal" activities, leading to arguments on social media over Somers' innocence, and the #BoycottBorderlands3 hashtag.
The latest development in this story is that Somers' channel has simply, well, disappeared.
Last week, several reddit users reported seeing a number of copyright strikes on SupMatto's channel, which YouTube said were from Borderlands 3 publisher 2K Games (I took a look at the community page myself, and there were a lot). At the time it was unclear whether these had been filed after SupMatto's video on Take-Two's investigation, but given YouTube's terms and conditions state there's a seven-day grace period, this suggests the claims were made last Thursday - while Somers' video was published on the Tuesday. It seems likely that this was the cause of the channel shutdown, although the exact number of strikes on SupMatto's channel remains disputed.
Eurogamer contacted 2K last week for comment on the copyright strikes, but received the same statement as previously issued:
"Take-Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously. The action we've taken is the result of a 10-month investigation and a history of this creator profiting from breaking our policies, leaking confidential information about our product, and infringing our copyrights.
"The information he's sharing about the situation is incomplete, and in some cases untrue. Not only were many of his actions illegal, but they were negatively impacting the experiences of other content creators and our fans in anticipation for the game.
"We will take the necessary actions to defend against leaks and infringement of our intellectual property that not only potentially impact our business and partners, but more importantly may negatively impact the experiences of our fans and customers."
Somers' various social media channels have been deleted and the YouTuber previously said in his initial video that he would be on a break from social media until September. YouTube's terms of service state that channels terminated due to copyright strikes can file counter notifications to contest the decision. If that fails, Somers would likely need to consider legal action to get his channel back.