YouTube insider access tied to massive leaks

One incident, as noted by Henderson, occurred in 2022 when KSI attempted to give away over $10,000 in Amazon gift cards. However, KSI later realized that all of the gift card codes had been redeemed before the video was posted, sparking an internal investigation at YouTube. The company reportedly started a similar investigation after the trailer for GTA VI leaked, but it’s not clear whether it’s related.

All of this ties into what seems like an ongoing problem at Google. On Monday, 404 Media published reports based on Google’s internal database records, and it found that a Google contractor was behind the 2017 Nintendo leak that offered an early look at Yoshi’s Crafted World.

At the time, a user on Reddit shared an image of the trailer just before its reveal at E3. The image contained an “admin.youtube.com” URL in the address bar, suggesting that an employee accessed the private version of the video.

Google confirmed that an employee accessed the information in a database entry viewed by 404 Media. “Google employee deliberately leaked private Nintendo information,” the entry said. “Former TVC [temporary vendor contractor] download video with admin account, and shared unreleased Nintendo feature with friend.” The entry also reportedly said the incident was “non-intentional.”

In a statement to The Verge, Google spokesperson Matt Bryant says every flag reported by 404 Media “was reviewed and resolved at that time.” However, the company didn’t elaborate on what it does to prevent employees from accessing and leaking content early.