In May of 2024, controversial YouTuber, podcaster and internet personality Tana Mongeau revealed during a live recording of her podcast Cancelled, that when she was seventeen, she slept with Cody Ko, who was 25 at the time.
This past summer this situation was nearly impossible to miss on any social media site, with videos being uploaded to YouTube and TikTok calling for Ko to address the allegations and text posts spanning from X to Reddit wanting clarification on what Mongeau recounted.
For anyone who did manage to miss this discussion, though, here’s a quick summary of the situation:
Mongeau has mentioned this encounter in the past. Still, due to her history of overdramatized storytime videos and poor decisions, most notably the handling of her convention, Tanacon, as well as the overwhelming popularity of Ko, the Internet largely dismissed her claims until this summer.
Ko’s “response,” or lack thereof, indicates a larger issue that has plagued the Internet forever. Rather than addressing the claims, admitting to his actions, or apologizing, he decided to silently step down from his role at TMG Studios, which was announced through an internal email.
To many, this response was inadequate, due to it not coming directly from Ko himself, it not touching on any of the allegations presented and its insinuation that Ko will remain involved in the studio, just not in a public-facing manner.
Ko’s most recent video was uploaded two months ago at the time of writing. Many other creators in the commentary space have removed their collaboration videos with him and have unfollowed him on social media.
While Mongeau doesn’t identify this as a traumatic experience, she has acknowledged that she was “taken advantage of.” After seeing the widespread negativity towards her sharing her experience, she has also described the situation as “heartbreaking,” believing that if another woman was the victim and Ko was less popular online, the conversation being had would be much different.
In the end, Ko has been able to walk away from this situation relatively unharmed, only seeing a minute dip in subscribers and no longer being able to be an Internet personality (temporarily, at least).
The larger issue
The Ko-Mongeau situation rocked the Internet for a few months but has since largely been moved on from. Despite committing a crime, Ko’s consequences have been minor. While there have been plenty of other influencers who have been exposed for preying on minors, Ko’s case seems to be different, but why?
The first few reasons for this difference are the facets of Ko’s identity. Ko is a conventionally attractive, presumably wealthy, white man with a large following, giving him a substantial amount of privilege. Whether or not we realize it, we all hold implicit biases toward or against certain types of people, and Ko just so happens to fit the bill for the type of person many of us have been subconsciously taught to view as superior or untouchable. If some of these identifiers were removed, it is likely the reaction to Mongeau’s claims would have been different.
Another factor that closely ties into the above discussion is Ko’s popularity. Even months after this was brought to light and since his last upload, Ko has 5.87 million subscribers on his main channel alone. He has been a well-known Internet personality since the days of Vine, solidifying his reputation as a charming and relatable guy and someone you would want to be friends with. Due to his many years online, some of his fans are intensely loyal, having formed a parasocial relationship with Ko and either believing that he would never do such a thing or are easily able to brush his actions off as a “mistake” from his past.
Another creator whose audience recently responded to extremely dark allegations is Dr. Disrespect, who was exposed for talking to a minor online and even making plans to meet up with them. Since these allegations came out, the Twitch streamer has since claimed that he was “baiting” everyone with his confession. Mongeau, on the other hand, has been surrounded by controversy since she first began her career online, as covered extensively in this article, and therefore doesn’t have the same fiercely dedicated fanbase that Ko and Dr. Disrespect do, causing her to have less general support from audiences.
Despite her 5.44 million subscribers, the general sentiment of Mongeau’s character is very different than Ko’s, with her being largely considered immature or irresponsible. After the disaster of 2018’s Tanacon, Mongeau’s already generally negative reputation became further muddied. When comparing the two, it is clear that Ko had power over Mongeau in terms of his age, gender, influence, and reputation.
On top of these elements that are specific to this situation, our culture is still one of victim-blaming and patriarchy. Historically, much of Western culture has followed a patriarchal model, with men being strongly superior to women both within and outside of the home. In this case, Ko’s gender identity positions him to be more powerful than Mongeau. While great strides have been made in dismantling the structure of patriarchy, it is still deeply rooted in our culture, allowing men to often move on from their inappropriate actions more easily than women.
Tied directly into the concept of patriarchy is the pattern of victim-blaming. Due to Mongeau’s positioning of herself in her younger years as highly sexual, many Internet users and supporters of Ko have used this to justify his actions, ignoring the fact that the state of Florida, where their encounter occurred, legally does not recognize the ability of seventeen-year-olds to consent to engage in sexual activity. Despite the very black-and-white nature of the law, people continued to identify Mongeau as one of the culprits in the situation, citing her past self-sexualizing as the reason for doing so.
Conclusion
In short; why did Cody Ko get away with taking advantage of an underage girl? Because the Internet made him untouchable.
What we as consumers of online culture should take away from this is a reminder that the people we follow are just that; people. They have made mistakes and will continue to make mistakes, just like everyone without a platform, but the scale of their consequences to said mistakes are different due to their existence in the public eye. Don’t allow yourself to put these people on a pedestal and remember that the character they portray online might not be perfectly accurate to who they are offline.