Netflix is facing calls to boycott its latest hit series Beef after a 2014 podcast clip recently resurfaced, showing Beef actor David Choe graphically detailing what he described then as his own “rapey behavior.” Choe later clarified in a 2014 statement that the podcast clip featured one of his misguided attempts at performance “art” while he was mentally unwell. He insisted that the sexual assault he described was entirely fabricated and declared, “I am not a rapist.”

That clip came back to haunt Choe this month when his performance in Beef drew wide praise, and journalists posted the clip to remind audiences of Choe’s past transgression. The clip quickly went viral on social media, and Choe seemingly decided to do damage control by sending copyright takedown notices through his nonprofit, The David Young Choe Foundation, and successfully getting some of the clips removed from Twitter.

“Several Twitter users—@MediumSizeMeech and @aurabogado have re-uploaded a clip from Episode 106 ‘Erection Quest’ of our DVDASA live podcast and video series that was originally published on March 10, 2014 without our consent,” the takedown request read, specifically noting that the request came directly from Choe.

Twitter promptly responded by suspending journalists’ accounts until the clips were removed. Vice reported that Choe seemed to be weaponizing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and forcing journalists to remove the clip because it was seemingly causing him reputational harm. The Freedom of Press Foundation echoed that criticism, posting a tweet defending journalists’ “fair use” of the “newsworthy” clip and suggesting that “abuse of copyright takedown procedures to censor journalists is a serious and growing problem.”

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Last month, Twitter CEO Elon Musk called “overzealous” copyright holders who weaponize takedown notices “a plague on humanity.” At that time, Twitter's trust and safety chief, Ella Irwin, told Ars that Twitter reviews each DMCA complaint to ensure it is valid. Irwin said that common reasons to reject a takedown request included “bad faith reporting such as someone claiming to be a rights owner when they actually do not own the rights to the content in question or someone threatening to get a user suspended unless they pay them money immediately, which often turns out to be a fraud scam.” Irwin’s comments on the takedown request policy were received just before Twitter started replying to all press requests with a poop emoji.

Choe also sent a takedown request to Google

In addition to acting in Beef, Choe designed the title cards for the show and is a prominent graffiti artist. He famously was paid in Facebook stocks for murals that the social media site commissioned when it was just starting, then suddenly earned $200 million when Facebook went public in 2012. His podcast comments were originally reported by Melissa Stetten for the now-defunct entertainment blog XOJane. A full transcript is still available on the Internet Archive.

The clip comes from a live podcast called DVDASA, which Choe hosted with porn star Asa Akira. In an episode called “The Erection Quest,” Choe described an alleged encounter where he coerced a Black massage therapist, “Rose,” into performing sexual acts while Rose repeatedly rejected his ongoing advances. On the podcast, Choe claimed that Rose had a crush on him, suggesting his behavior was OK because she was saying “yes with her eyes.”

After Akira joked that actually Choe raped Rose, Choe said, “I just want to make it clear that I admit that that's rapey behavior, but I am not a rapist.” However, he also claimed on the podcast that what he found arousing about the encounter was “the thrill of possibly going to jail.”