How the Abuse Of TOP China's Vtuber Caused a Meltdown: The A-SOUL Scandal

0:00 asil was the most popular virtual Idol group in China who racked in millions of dollars but the Scandal that engulfed this group was a tale of exploitation so shocking that it became an international Affair this made audiences question everything and whether or not the fantasy they were buying into contributed to the downfall of their favorite Idol and blinded them from seeing the truth until it was too late created by UA entertainment a company focused on putting together popular music groups and are owned by none other than bite Dan the owners of Tik Tok launched this project in 2020 since launch they've looked to increase the

0:46 group's popularity on their own entertainment platform Duan which is pretty much like Chinese Tik Tok known primarily as a tech company by Den's Venture into moap vtuber was a logical step forward pushing the boundary of technological advancement by having them perform in real time behind their 3D avatars what their anime avatars would perform on stream the actress would do in real time and a group consisted of five girls with five different personalities Bella Diana elene AA and Carol also known as jail but for the sake of clarity in this video we will stick to Carol and the group became an absolute phenomena in 2021 alone the group broadcasting donation Revenue reached 24 million Yan the first months

1:33 of asl's Rise weren't easy according to this article their beautiful two-dimensional appearance that now win everyone over some people thought that this faceless live streaming method was inferior calling them dogs in Disguise others worried that the huge commercial organizations behind them would harm the virtual streamer Circle dominated by Indie streamers trolls also often targeted them for several reasons first V2 ERS weren't as widely accepted back then and they were an easy target for normies and also because they were seen as fake mostly because of Management's focus on scripted content and defined characters archetypes for each girl which fueled accusations that the whole thing was way too staged but the girls

2:19 always handled it with Grace and humor going along with it and eventually turning the trolls into fans that stayed it was definitely a slow burn at first the scripts they had to read out and the constant restraints management gave them didn't hook the fans right off the bat as it failed to establish a genuine connection with them Carol in particular struggled the most with having to change her personality into the character envisioned by asol she had to sing in a different way that was uncomfortable for her she had to act cool and aloof like her character lore but she had a shy personality that didn't really fit she also struggled with the whole live streaming aspect and was not very good at it to help her out a group of 30 or so fans created an offline chat for her to practice her live streaming without

3:05 the pressure of being officially live these original fans ended up being named Carol's Knights and will be a recuring character later on in the story but it was in moments such as these when the idols were able to slowly show their personalities and The Human Side of them that was the selling point for many it was the unexpected shy personality of Carol or small personal tidbits the audience learned about the Idols that made them curious to know more about them for example Carol's character had short hair but while she danced in her moap suit fans noticed she would sometimes make a movement trying to move her hair back hinting at her having long hair in real life and this pequ their curiosity and so while the fans were originally drawn in by beautiful avatars

3:50 they stayed because of the person behind those avatars this was Illustrated during a particularly touching moment in one of Diana's stream where fan donated to her with a message talking about coming home after long hours and being physically exhausted but looking forward to watching her stream the donor decided to cut their meal in half only buying half as much chicken so they could spend the rest of the money to send her this message because it meant so much for them watching her this froze Diana and all the viewers could tell that she was crying she turned around and cried briefly then came back to tell her friends to make sure to eat eat well and take care of themselves moments like these were edged in the audience's mind forever but this is something the

4:36 creators of asol never truly grasp the fans cared about the actress behind the vtubers about their souls but the company cared more about the fantasy they were selling and the disparity between what asol thought was good for the brand and what the fans thought was good would only grew bigger and bigger until it combined into The Perfect Storm to add another layer to this there's sort of an unspoken rule in the idol world as to not open the box as they say it's an expression that signifies looking into the Idol's past life and into who they were before there is an illusion and Escape that these Idols bring to their fans that opening the box would undo especially around 2020 where

5:24 Chinese youth were becoming incredibly disillusioned with the 996 lifestyle and particularly difficult living conditions in China 9 and six basically means employment that would last from 9:00 a.m. to 900 p.m. 6 days per week watching those Idols was an escape from a loop Chinese citizens felt they were stuck in so for those people they really clung to those ideals for other more Niche communities however they would dig a Little Deeper they attempted to open the box as they say although it was mostly kept to those small circles where you would only stumble upon that information if you actively look for it the girl's past life accounts were frequently unnerfed discovering social media posts as well as names getting

6:10 leaked and throughout the space of 2 years the group suffered multiple doxes D doxing was really a problem each time netizens connected more and more dots but asol remained strangely silent on that matter on May 10th everything changes as asol officially announced is Carol's indefinite hius citing health and academic reasons they assure fans that Carol is not quitting and that they won't try to replace her in fact they reiterate that asol is consisted of five outstanding young ladies and none of them can be missing they also schedule her Hiatus concert on May 20th this comes as a shock and makes audiences question every other speculations they've seen before if this was true was

6:56 everything else true as well Neon go back and revisit the other leaks and speculations and they find worrying screenshots from Carol's supposed account in the first screenshot Carol talks about a dance practice where she is overworked was about to go and have some rest at the last session decided to go to the last half hour mark then came the K-pop remix version dance I was once again stopped my mind was a bit scattered when learning the dance but finally when leading the dance girls in the team said the movement is too hard to remember we're counting on you so I let the girls on but the dance teacher told me during the break too flashy too flashy I'll send you a video later at the end when during the dance a movement was reduced down so it got saved now it's just another sad day hope there can be less of them my job is so mentally

7:43 taxing have to dance around others I just hoped that I could dance happily flashy big movements filled with emotion At Last I wish I could learn to move fasters remember them well in another screenshot Carol was hinting at Suicidal Thoughts I'll be tougher and tougher people will be riled up by all of those so-called internal info and protected info and safety it's dark outside it's even darker inside I know now why those who committed suicide got the idea there is also a mention of a spine injury can't say it went smoothly got tassc spine's brain when blowing my hair dry got called to do a meeting and yelled at telling me to do a better face reveal and for the face reveal it means ending virtual streaming activities finally in

8:29 the last post Carol is talking about letting go of her dignity and her fears of bringing shame to her family with her work failures sometimes I thought I'd be tough enough fought for my interest but forgot to take care of my health fought for my job but forgot to maintain my dignity my older sisters worries a lot about her divorce bringing shame to her family I worry about my failures I did tell them that I wouldn't renew the contract at the meeting but I was also hurting inside After exiting the room I won't back down I'll f face it seriously another outrageous claim that shocked the fans was that it was discovered that the talents were paid an insanely low salary for the amount of money they were earning here the numbers defer from several accounts so it's impossible to pinpoint an exact salary but it seems it

9:15 ranges between 8 and 11 kmb which is roughly $990 to $1,500 per month even more shocking it was discovered that the talents were paid a mere 1% Commission of the ations but even worse so the platform takes half of that so they would only be left with a minuscule 0.5% picture this if a fan donates $20 to asol the idols would receive 10 this felt like a huge slap in the face to so many netizens who donated their hard workor money when you donate money to a Creator you don't expect them to only see 0.5% of it that fan from earlier that cut his meal purchase in a half who ate less so he could donate the other half of the money to his favorite

10:03 Idol that money would go to line the pockets of a trillion dollar company and the idol itself would only receive. 5% of it to put this in perspective this article details that in a month last year in 2021 Carol generated 2 million un which is roughly $300,000 USD in tips alone in a single month with this Revenue cut Carol would only see one $1,500 out of the $300,000 she earned insane not only that but another video rer F is where Carol talks about how she broke her phone but didn't have enough funds to buy a new one this is a top Idol in the country and she can't even replace her phone something was not adding up and this

10:50 gave weight to the previous claims of the 5% commission at the same time when some fans looked through Carol's net EAS Cloud account they found that she said I'm February 6 2022 that her legs were scratched by the capture motion sup today my left leg was cut by the moap suit quite a big cut my body was too cold to notice it at first only to find out about it when I went to the bathroom and the cut started bleeding and it hurt real bad I really hate it I can't shower we'll see about it tomorrow the song is quite good though and during the live stream on the same day some fans noticed that Carol was in an abnormal State she seemed to be behaving strangely one fan asked ASO officials about the situation and asil had this habit of making weekly Q&A to response to fans so asil

11:36 officials responded to this in the Q&A column on February 8th fan asks what happened to Carol around 39 minutes into part two of today's live stream did she suddenly feel unwell to which asol responds hello little friend please rest assured there was no particular issues that occurred at this point fans become increasingly worried and wonder if Carol was actually going on a h because of black company working conditions was ASO trying to make her go away quietly because of the leaks in that moment they decided that they weren't just going to stand by and watch them do this to her so on the evening of May 10th led by the billybilly Royal Carol Knights various asol fan groups banded together to write an open letter to the asol project staff

12:22 demanding that the project discloses the specific treatment working environment and detailed training schedule of the actresses they also question whether they were instances of overwork workplace bullying or privacy leaks by internal members they wanted the project to ensure the protection and privacy of the idols in regards to all of the leaks and doxing happening and furthermore it demanded a more detailed explanation regarding Carol's Hiatus on May 11 the asol members hold a special Q&A live stream in response to the controversy but is met with backlash fence criticized the members for being forced to take the blame for Management's actions why are they sending the vtubers to explain this away why can't asol management step up and answer for

13:07 themselves from here asos's blunders one after another is dancing around the claims and never offering transparency which only contributes to public backlash heightening at 2:39 a.m. asil's official account publishes a temporary Q&A column refuting some information circulating online first of all they denied the identity of users claiming to be insiders secondly they denied that group members had to pay for their own training stating that all of aso's training is conducted under company contracts with partner institutions these contracts do not have the right to be resold or transferred and all courses fees are borne by the company the girls can book courses according to their own schedules and personal habits and finally they denied the rumors of the

13:54 11,000 un base salary plus the 1% commission and practicing until 2: or 3:00 a.m. every day responding that specific salary information cannot be disclosed due to privacy concerns due to asil's refusal to disclose specific information due to privacy concerns as they said and the lack of direct response to fans most pressing concerns such as the Privacy leagues fans Express distrust in the official statement why couldn't they just give them a number there was something suspicious going on now as I've mentioned before thisy is a tech company firstand they always tried to innovate on the tech the 3DS the moap and even the AI at 9:44 a.m. a billybilly user unnerfed a video

14:41 suspected to be an early live stream function test for the asold project and there was a few problems with it the video showed an AI controlled een interacting with the audience and at the end of it there was a segment where redeem would make her chest bigger the fans were outraged be beyond measure by the company's decision their Idol someone they had immense respect and admiration for was being treated in a way they found unacceptable the proposed redeem option was viewed as a massive Act of disrespect akin to sofcore pornography at 3:50 p.m. the official account posted an update stating that after obtaining the members consent they decided to adjust the evening's live stream schedule Carol would first stream on her

15:26 own then the other four members would go live live this announcement was also met with backlash fans believe that this was a deliberate attempt to separate the other four girls from Carol and divite the fan base so an hour later the official account posted an update apologizing to fans stating that they had noticed a discussion about Carol and the other members being separated into two live stream rooms the official account admitted to a lack of consideration regarding this issue and changed the plan to have everyone broadcast together in Carol's Liv stream instead during this time the Vanguard faction a fans group are secretly planning to use scripts to send a large number of identical comments to flood the screen to force the management to answer their questions during the live stream and on Billy Billy the comments

16:12 are displayed on screen so this would be a way to force them to take accountability while everybody is waiting for the broadcast to start the asol Project Lead decides to publish a letter to the fans apologizing to all the fans and those who were Disturbed and then provided some response but not all of the right ones they kind of double down on the whole salary rumors about the actresses having low income being exploited and having poor working conditions being false but again refused to give any specific details regarding it so this is the second trust me bro fans receive which made them increasingly frustrated most egregious though was when the Project Lead stated that they never had heard the word abuse

16:58 and then proceeded to promise to strengthen effective communication with the girls which is wild to me because if there was workplace abuse did they expect her to say it outright to them besides that they explained that after the explosive popularity of the asil project the exploration of AI and interactive live stream was terminated so they weren't planning on Reviving that at all they also sort of try to explain way the wild spendings stating that youa still had considerable shares of the revenue rights that needed to be paid off and stated that due to the profit sharing research and development and art related costs the project was still operating at a significant loss however they have been striving to provide team members with competitive salaries and benefits within the

17:43 industry but again this is just something the company failed to understand they tried to provide users and justify their spending by saying look at all of these beautiful things we're investing in these new assets this latest technology but to the fans this is just not what they care about they cared about the idols they cared about the souls finally they emphasized the privacy issues that the fans were raising excusing it by saying that the last motion capture room information leak was suspected to have been caused by the it supplier during equipment maintenance and accountability is being pursued so they basically acknowledged that the moep studio that was leak was indeed theirs but they blame it on the it supplier they also states that they will take the lead in further

18:29 strengthening and paying attention to this issue which were not very satisfying reassurance to the fans finally the plan broadcast happens and the five girls go live and take turns interacting with the fans the comments are boted like planned by vanguards and they flood the screen with we're not going to the bird's nest anymore we're going home making it difficult for the members to communicate normally with fans as for the birds nest meeting this refers to the beijin National Stadium a large prestigious venue often used for major events and concerts the phrase we're not going to the birds nest anymore we're going home implies that fans are disappointed with the project and are withdrawing their support suggesting that aso's future success is now uncertain however in that live

19:15 stream Carol indirectly confirmed that the net ease Cloud Music account was indeed hers and also confirmed the authenticity of the leg injury caused by the motion capture suit during the live stream on the evening of February 6th she also emphasized that the reason for her departure should be based on the official announcement the other four members all stated that they would not leave and would stay with asol all the way so it's clear that asil's value and views of their souls plays a role here because of how they speak about it will immediately enrage the fans the fans want to know that their favorite Idols are treated fairly however all the responses they've received so far were always the rumors are false however we want close the actual truth separating

20:00 the live streams AI Idol video leaks and corporate language understatement asol did not understand that two the fans the soul was worth more than the model of the character asol tried to script the fans who themselves struggled with financial or personal issues resonated with Carol they saw themselves struggling every day while their bosses or companies made all of the money but when the illusion was shattered and it showed them the ugly truth that their favorite Idols were being abused that bite Dan and aso's parent companies are making record profits and growth but the asol idols would see none of it and the whole time the fans were donating to the idols without realizing that 99.5% of it would never reach

20:47 them so once audience didn't trust asol to make it right by the idols anymore the asol fans collectively decided to spread the word they needed the world to know what was happening to Carol if the company did not care enough about the idol or the fans to give a proper response then they would on May 13th the asol hashtag started trending on weeo the situation goes absolutely viral posts about Carol were trending immediately and were picked up by mainstream media for

22:00 this brought International scrutiny to the entire Idol industry some articles being incredibly critical of ASL like this Hong Kong article claiming that Mainland vtubers million dooll subscriptions income is actually lower than that of a Hong Kong white color worker the article Compares their income to other Corporal vtubers around the world such as Mory kapi or rushia Rua who earned much better Revenue split at the time and there was also some Dom IC media defending them either way this shed a negative light on vtubers and brought the government down for investigation in a shocking turn of event the next day asol officially announces the termination of Carol's 14 months in advance and her hus concert originally planned on May 20th is also

22:48 cancelled so they basically skipped the whole hus and went straight to termination they claimed they will pay a termination fee within seven working days after her termination and they vow that they W attempt at replacing the actress behind Carol they also show her signed contract as proof and give a tiny bit more details about the salary she had which is a monthly fixed income plus bonus plus 10% of the total turnover of the life broadcast additionally an internal letter from bance is leaked immediately after this announcement in this matter we believe that the negative emotions caused by malicious rumors may have been too much for her we have tried to communicate but it has not been completely effective we truly acknowledge her dedication under the pressure of public opinion Carol had

23:35 been under tremendous pressure and has chosen to leave early due to the confidentiality agreement we have paid her a sever package and wish her all the best in the future they go on the online rumors about members being exploited and the company abusing members are completely false apart from the previously disclosed information the members contracts salaries and personal safety have have always been our top priorities from a safety perspective we have always arranged dedicated vehicles in security for all members during live broadcast and other events and finally they touch on the income structure today we have decided to publicly disclose of Carol's income structure basic salary plus bonus plus Liv stream Revenue 10% of the total revenue for example if the

24:21 total revenue of a live stream is 100 Yu on Carol can receive 10 Yuan but they still refuse to reveal the Revenue share and exact numbers claiming it would be unfair to other members and due to the confidentiality requirements according to Industry practice aso's Liv stream revenue is mainly distributed to the cooperating Liv stream platform the cooperating agency and the members well yes asil it is industry practice to have a three-way split but the numbers of the split itself is important context here finally they end the letter expressing disapprovement of the criticism they reive chalking it up to cyber bullying and harassment through investigation we have discovered some malicious rumors

25:07 and rumor mongering behaviors they have used methods such as malicious editing spreading false information and inciting conflicts to manipulate public opinion and use everyone's love for the members to carry out malicious framing of the members misleading real users they have also engaged in large scale inappropriate behaviors such as cyber bullying and harassment we have already taken the first step to report to this to the relevant departments for processing finally as this situation had grown so viral that the Chinese government decided to step in the district of human resources and Social Security Bureau responds to public inquiry stating that as a member of asol Carol signed the Entertainer signing

25:53 contract with a contract period of July 15 2020 to July 15 2023 which includes agreeing to financial aid bonus and tax coverage not specified due to Industry standards and proclaimed that no evidence of salary withholding or forc contract signing was found during the investigation which basically amounted to well the contract was technically legal and she wasn't forced to agree to sign it Carol signed the contract and she was treated as they agreed to and indeed perhaps there was no money that was withheld or no Force labor but what if she just signed a shitty contract sure it wasn't illegal but was it fair on May 17 asil responds

26:39 to public concerns in their weekly Q&A denying allegations of mistreatment and stating they have contacted the police regarding the information leaks at 6:06 p.m. asol officially releases a Q&A stating that the rumors about the girls having low income being exploited and having poor working condition itions were all false regarding the issues of privacy leaks they stated that it was inconvenient to disclose details as it involved the girls private information after this announcement some domestic media started reporting more kindly onto the asol situation this article in people's daily online for example states that judging from the response of relevant parties the accusations of workplace bullying and unfair salary

27:24 distributions are purely imaginary the commentary also stated everyone's passion deserves respect whether they love real Idols or virtual Idols but this is not an excuse for some fanatical fans to be irrational being passionate about virtual Idols should not deviate from Real World rules on CCTV the official WeChat account published an article titled a top Idol decides to resign commenting on the incident as well and stating even the best technology is meant to serve people it becomes meaningless when it detaches from or ignores people the article also states don't suppress their people behind for the sake of promoting virtual Idols so clearly it is a critique of the asol stands that are lashing out at the

28:11 corporation on May 18th another internal letter from bense was leaked again pointing out that in the face of online rumors the company's repeated clarifications are meaningless and excessive entanglement with former employees will also be seen by public opinion as the company bullying the week at the same time the project team is encouraged to give back to wory fans with better content on behalf of the company I conducted a one-on-one conversation with the four remaining members of asol I also communicated with relevant Personnel including the operation and production teams and reviewed the detailed incident investigation report submitted by the company yesterday externally the members have been labeled as victims and tools which has deeply affected them the

28:56 company believes that we should not continue to be silent and passively respond to the accusations we should not allow the endless and unfounded accusations and distorted narratives continue one of the company's public relations principle is if you want to be loved you must first be brave enough to step out the company believes that we should not become a sweatshop excessive pressure is counterproductive individuals can only unleash their full potential and contribute to the company's success when they are in a healthy and supportive work environment based on the above investigation result and considerations we have released today's Q&A this is also the last official statement from the asil production committee regarding this incident I hope that the colleagues working on the V project will continue

29:42 to create excellent content utilize effective live broadcasts and planning to respond to the situation and continue to support our Idols we will not give up and we will persevere until the end the problem with this letter is that it was suspected by fans to have have been leaked on purpose as part of a PR move to corroborate what had been said in official statements previously the statement in particular was mostly used as a defense tool by the asol Defense Force which is a counter Group which emerg in opposition to the asol criticism these fans are diard asol fans similarly to the Doki bird Sal and tatsuki controversy that we had in the west this year the fan base became divided with those who were highly critical of the company verus is the one

30:28 who wanted to defend the company and those asol stands believe verbatim What was stated in the official asol statements and the Chinese government statement so they did not believe the bullying allegations and were also extremely critical of Carol's Behavior they blamed her for most of the problems caused within the company but also the problems fans caused with their speculation that may have hurt the other members and as with every controversy online not everything said by internet users and of being true but these fans believe that Carol let it happen on purpose they believe that she should have controlled her fan base she knew some of those rumors weren't true she knew exactly what she was doing but she led them because she knew she would get an advantage in her exit of the company

31:15 if she managed to weaponize her audience she let it all happen because she knew it would work in her favor as for me I don't believe she was obligated to speak up sure some claims might have been hyped up by the fans and were not illegal per se but again you can have bullying and you can have bad workplace conditions without them being illegal after the incident various asol accounts started experiencing significant loss of followers and rapidly declining in social media numbers games under bite Dan such as flower in the wild and code arrival also got negative review bombed and merchandises in aol's Doan store received such a large number of negative reviews and reports that it had to be

32:01 removed off the platform due to them breaking platform rules data related to aso's updates videos and live streams have all declined significantly as well aso's original fan base was showing signs of fragmentation on June 21st a mural of Carol located on the South Bank of human bridge in Honan District was vandalized by unknown individuals less than a week after its completion this this incident sparked heated discussions among fans and further escalated in fighting within the fandom on May 20th the motion capture equipment provider also issued a statement denying their equipment could have caused Carol's alleged injury they wanted none of that negative press as I mentioned before the

32:47 doxing was always a problem with asil and this problem was not attenuated by the controversy in fact it got Amplified throughout that time on May 10th all of the members of asol got affected by a large scale dox which revealed some of their personal addresses on May 24th asol attempts to calm defense angers by planning another Q&A and they make a statement about wanting to protect their talents but they attribute the doxing to one of the members fault to which the fans speculated it was actually Carol taking a balcony selfie the company believed that because of this selfie bad faith actors had managed to triangulate the it location based on the landmarks and buildings in the background of that

33:32 photo however some fans were not sold on this answer and they believe that the address was leaked on a large scale base because of the Courier address used by Carol was exposed by a doxer here the fans of different factions started arguing again some pinned the blame on Carol but the Carol Defenders went as far as to recreate the selfie themselves and attempted the triangulation themselves to prove that the triangulation couldn't be as accurate as asol claimed due to the lack of information however as with most internet discords goes this only Amplified the different factions in fighting eventually Carol returned to streaming under a new persona followed by a majority of her fans she releases a song cover on July 21st that received

34:17 over 1 million views followed by two other song covers all boasting over a million views nowadays Carol is thriving as a FaceCam streamer and seems happy in her Newfound environment where she enjoys the freedom to express herself through her craft as she pleases and enjoys a decent popularity her loyal fan base is still as dedicated as ever and we can see this from this carol mural that is still visited by her fans to this day and these days no one calls her Carol anymore thank you all so much for watching if you've made it to the end of the video make sure to leave a horse emote in the comment section if you'd like to support the channel make sure to like And subscribe as this really helps

35:04 the channel in the eyes of the algo gauze and if you'd like to support the channel one step further as we've grown with more quality edits and more translators if you'd like us to keep on providing quality content make sure to check out my 2.0 collection on um market.com we got opai mouse pads standies concom mute mascots water bottle and blankets and feel free to check out my other channels Rema investigates and Rema highlights as well as my patreon if you crave even more Rema content until next time I shall never trust a vtuber company statement ever again see y Carol generated 2 million Yan which is 2 million Yan which is roughly wait how

35:50 do I pronounce y you on pronunciation we are looking at how to China it is often mispronounced or mistake an wait is that what I said