A Chinese group in the UK is demanding that YouTube pianists remove their faces from broadcasts

• A pianist's live broadcast has gone viral after a group of Chinese people insisted on blocking their faces.
• The confrontation escalated into screaming as the pianist protested and the group became angry.
• Brendan Kavanagh told BI he was filming at a train station and had the right to broadcast in public places.

A confrontation between a group of Chinese and a pianist at a train station in London went viral on YouTube.

Pianist Brendan Kavanagh, who has about 2.19 million subscribers on YouTube, went live with a cameraman on Friday on a public piano at St Pancras International Station.

“It's very cold in London today, the temperature was four degrees below zero,” Kavanagh joked before he began playing. “But someone put purple balloons on the piano, so everything is fine.”

A group of about six people can be seen in the background of the video, carrying People's Republic of China flags and yellow papers. One of them, a woman, stepped forward with her phone to film Kavanagh playing alongside another pianist.

When his fellow pianist took up the solo, Kavanagh asked another woman in the group if she would like to dance to the music, but she declined.

Minutes later, the group approached Kavanagh. The ensuing 10-minute interaction was captured and broadcast on Kavanagh's live stream.

“We're here filming for Chinese TV, did you film all of us with your cameras?” asked the woman who photographed him.

Business Insider could not immediately verify her claim that she works for Chinese television.

Kavanagh said he was not sure if his camera captured their faces. “We're not allowed?” Asked.

The woman replied: “We are not allowed because we are shown on Chinese TV.”

Kavanagh protested, saying he was broadcasting live in a public place.

A man in the group told him they were protecting their rights to their “voices and images,” later adding that the group had an “agreement with other people” not to show their faces online.

The man went on to threaten to pursue legal action.

Kavanagh continued to argue. “We're in a free country, not in communist China now, you know?” He said.

“I'm sorry, now that's racist,” the man replied.

When Kavanagh reached a flag that one of the women was holding, the man began yelling at him not to touch her.

“You are not their security agent.”

Two police officers arrived shortly after, and the group explained their complaints.

One of the officers can be heard telling them on the live broadcast: “You are in a public place.” “If they are filming, they have the right to do so in a public place.”

The other officer asked Kavanagh to stop filming and that he was “not allowed to put this on your YouTube channel because this is a police matter.” Kavanagh's photographer continued filming.

Police then spoke to the group off camera. Later, the officer who asked Kavanagh to turn off the live broadcast returned.

She said the group had asked Kavanagh not to use footage of them on his YouTube channel. “Because money is being made, they work for a company, and their faces cannot appear on TV or someone’s channel,” the officer said.

Kavanagh refused. “You're not their security agent,” he said.

The officer also said the group accused Kavanagh of making racist comments, and said he tried to touch one of them inappropriately.

“Listen, they're waving a communist flag, so I said you're waving a communist flag,” Kavanagh said. “Is this racist?”

Kavanagh's encounter went viral

Kavanagh told BI the group may have been offended when he mistakenly called them a Japanese TV crew early in his live broadcast.

The YouTuber said he knew a friend who was filming nearby with a Japanese TV station and initially assumed the Chinese group was also under the same team.

His video had been viewed 3.5 million times on Monday evening, three days after the live broadcast ended. And it might as well It went viral on X.

Clips of the meeting were published on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform. The group was also criticized.

Kavanagh said it was ironic that by trying to remove their images from his video, the group went viral instead. “This is a classic Streisand effect video,” he said, referring to when someone trying to hide from the public eye becomes more prominent through their efforts.

Kavanagh said the online backlash was also directed at the officer, who told him to stop filming.

“I think her behavior was completely out of order,” Kavanagh said.

British Transport Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment from BI.

UK law People are allowed to photograph in public places The police have no power to stop them.

Kavanagh also stressed his stance that he had not made controversial statements towards the group.

Selfie rights recently became a flashpoint in China after a former executive at a government institution went viral in June after he was photographed holding hands with a woman who was not his wife in public.

China civil law It states that every person has a legal right to his or her image and likeness, which cannot be published online without their consent. There is no such comprehensive protection in the UK.

Kavanagh showed BI an email from YouTube stating that a privacy complaint had been filed against his video and that its content would be reviewed.

“But now millions of people have watched it,” he said.

The Chinese Embassy in London and Google did not respond to requests for comment from BI.