Stefano Lepri is one youtubers. And maybe something more. Stefano, known as St3pNy, was one of the most important faces of that generation that lived through the years in which YouTube in Italy became a means of mass communication. Or better. The years when YouTube became the new point of reference for children’s entertainment. A success experienced when he was just over 20 years.
Together with the Mates, a collective formed by others four creators, between 2014 and 2018 it dominated the platform’s charts. Thousands of videos, millions of views. A success that began before anyone could even think about earning money with content on the web. It was an explosion. Fairs all over Italy, places full with kids lining up for a photo with them. Books, sponsors, merchandise. At some point Also moneyObviously.
Then something stopped. In May 2019 Stefano discovered that he had ended up at the center of an investigation by the Financial Police. The suspect, in short, was the failure to pay VAT. The sentence also arrived in 2021: 8 months for a total of 75,000 euros of unpaid VAT. And in between everything else. Avalanches of memessponsors moving away, relationships with PRs cooling down.
Corona case – Signorini, there is an element in the investigations that is very strange: the YouTube thread
The turning point came in December. In the appeal process Stefano is acquitted. In this interview with Fanpage.it he decided to tell the story everything that happened to himfrom the golden years on the platform to the trial. Below you will find some excerpts but for the full version we recommend you see the video at the top of this article.
How it all started: When YouTube was just a site
The first video uploaded by Stefano on YouTube is from January 2011. “I was certainly still in school. Unlike today there is no scheduling of content. I would set the alarm when the video stopped loading and then set it private and publish it at 8:00 in the morning. Just to do that one visualization. Which was usually mine.”
Now YouTube is practically a television. There are channels that have advanced productions behind them, sometimes more expensive than a film. Those who start publishing videos on YouTube today do so knowing that it could become a job. “It all started with a friend of mine who asked me to create the channel to share Call of Duty clips with friends. That was the main use of the platform. At most, to get subscribers you went under other people’s videos and wrote: Subscriber, spare parts?”.
When YouTubers filled the Assago forum
There is an event that for Stefano marked the transition from that strange thing that was YouTube at the beginning to a mass phenomenon. A moment when he saw all the clicks turn into people, the comments into voices and numbers in faces. “There was an event at the Assago forum. They had come there for us, only for us. I realized that all those messages and comments were people who were becoming attached. It was the switch in which I understood what was happening.”
The day Stefano found out about the investigation
In May 2019 came the news of investigations by the Financial Police. Stefano is in Florence, at the bank: “I was about to buy a property. My agency called me and told me that within an hour the news that I had evaded a million euros would be out in all the newspapers. At first I was amazed, I turned around expecting the cameras. I thought I was on Scherzi a Parte, but no.”
Information that he didn’t even realize at first: “The first day I was joking about it. I thought people would understand. But no. At the beginning it wasn’t even difficult. It was all surreal. The guillotine arrived with the trial in January 2021, when a judge said I was guilty.”
