MrBeast, YouTube’s most popular creator, is seen by many as a family-friendly, good guy who mostly does charity work. At least until last week. Recent controversies, including past insults, his close friends being child molesters and turning a blind eye, among many others, have brought the YouTube king’s massive empire to a crumbling halt.
MrBeast’s YouTube kingdom is crumbling because of things he’s said in the past
Jimmy Donaldson, known online by his pseudonym MrBeast, has become one of the most famous influencers, largely thanks to his massively popular YouTube videos, which often give away large sums of money for charity or as prizes in a major contest.
He is also known for being politically neutral and family-friendly, often avoiding profanity and violence in his content. This has helped him amass more than 300 million subscribers on YouTube and sell food, clothing and more. He was even offered $100 million to host and develop a reality game show for Amazon. But MrBeast seems to be losing his “good family friend” reputation.
On July 24, a 2017 clip of MrBeast, then aged 18-19, resurfaced online. In the clip, posted by YouTube phenomenon Rosanna Pansino, MrBeast jokes about buying black people for $300. At one point, someone suggests that they sell black people for $69, to which MrBeast laughs and replies, “That’s a very high price.”
In a separate clip, reportedly recorded in 2017, MrBeast and his friends host a podcast and joke about having a sexual relationship with 14-year-old rapper Bhad Barbie.
It doesn’t end there: Someone who worked with MrBeast made a video about him being a fraud and it went viral
The YouTube king is not only in trouble with his old clips. In a video shared by someone claiming to have worked for MrBeast in the past, he claims that some of the contests he organized were fake and that the people who won prizes were MrBeast’s acquaintances.
There are numerous reports and rumors that the reality show on Amazon with a $5 million prize is a dangerous train wreck. A new New York Times report claims that people were not fed properly, were repeatedly injured and did not receive proper or adequate medical care.
Some women claim they were denied clean underwear when they started menstruating, while others reported that they were denied access to their medication when they needed it.
And it doesn’t end there: Ava Kris Tyson, who was with MrBeast in every video, turned out to be a pedophile
Ava Kris Tyson, a co-host on MrBeast’s videos, suddenly decided she was transgender and left her wife and child. It was a move that was already frowned upon by conservative audiences.
Later, an even worse case came to light. He repeatedly molested children younger than him and even under the age of 18. He had sexually explicit conversations with 13-14 year olds on Discord servers. There are several other children under the age of 18 that he harassed not only collectively but individually.
You thought it was over? It’s not: It turns out that a member of the MrBeast team was making sexually explicit illustrations involving children and Jimmy knew about it and didn’t speak up
MrBeast’s former podcast co-host Shadman turned out to be a pedophile who drew sexually explicit illustrations involving children and even hung them up in the podcast room.
The part of the story that connects to MrBeast is that Jimmy saw this and took no action. Shadman was expelled from his university in Switzerland for ‘posing a threat to society’ because of his drawings that challenged the moral codes of society.
So what are MrBeast and his spokespeople saying about these issues?
In July, MrBeast cut ties with his friend Ava Kris Tyson, who was with him in almost every video. Jimmy later said in a statement that what Tyson did was “unacceptable”. Jimmy has since hired a third-party investigator in the hopes that they will “clear up” all the facts.
A MrBeast spokesperson told the Associated Press, “Jimmy acted like many children when he was younger and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny. He has apologized many times over the years and has learned that with growing influence comes a responsibility to be more aware and sensitive to the power of language. After making some bad jokes and other mistakes as a teenager, as an adult he has worked together to make a positive impact around the world.”