MrBeast, YouTube’s biggest star, admits to using ‘inappropriate language’ in the past
NEW YORK — MrBeast, YouTube’s biggest star and a philanthropic force with nearly unmatched influence among young audiences, admitted Wednesday to using “inappropriate language” in his early online career, as controversy has erupted around him and a former collaborator.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, and his estimated $700 million empire have come under renewed fire in recent weeks after accusations of Donaldson’s past racist comments surfaced, as well as allegations that a longtime colleague made inappropriate sexual comments to minors.
“As a teenager, Jimmy acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny,” a spokesperson for the YouTuber said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Over the years, he has apologized many times and learned that with increasing influence comes increasing responsibility, to be more aware and sensitive to the power of language. After making some bad jokes and other mistakes when he was younger, as an adult, he has focused on engaging with the MrBeast community to work together to make a positive impact around the world.”
His videos of whimsical challenges and lavish giveaways, often accompanied by expressive vignettes and punchy titles, have attracted a record 307 million subscribers on YouTube. Recent videos include “Ages 1 – 100 Decide Who Wins $250,000” and “I Built 100 Houses And Gave Them Away!” which, like most of his videos, have been viewed more than 100 million times.
The philanthropic sector received this content with a mix of praise for encouraging direct generosity and criticism of exploitative “inspiration porn.” Donaldson’s larger ambition has manifested itself in recent years through the launch of his Feastables snack brand, a chain of branded burgers with bad enough reviews that he sued the company that makes it, and a deal with Amazon Prime Video for a 1,000-contestant reality TV show.
But before he took YouTube by storm with his often absurd charitable endeavors, Donaldson built a solid following as a gaming content creator who sometimes interacted with viewers during live streams.
In a 2017 clip shared by YouTube influencer Rosanna Pansino in a July 24 post on X, Donaldson responded to a viewer who had commented about selling black people for money and said that “the most I would pay is probably $300.” Donaldson also used a homophobic slur multiple times. After a commenter repeated a racial slur, Donaldson eventually asked his audience to stop using the word in the chat.
Pansino told AP she had worked on several potential commercial projects with Donaldson in recent years, but none ever got off the ground. Last fall, she publicly complained about an edit of her appearance in a MrBeast video, but eventually deleted the posts after she said she received death threats from fans.
Pansino said that contrary to popular belief, it is “simply not true” that Donaldson has always created “family-friendly content.”
“His early videos, where he was trying to be a gamer and a forward-thinking streamer, and he was saying horrible, mean things, I didn’t know that,” Pansino said. “I had no idea that the story was there.”
In another excerpt from a May 2017 podcast, Donaldson suggested he would have sex with rapper Bhad Bhabie, whose real name is Danielle Bregoli and who was 14 at the time. The video has since been removed for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”
Podcast co-host Leon Lush defended Donaldson in a video posted to X last week. Lush said Donaldson clarified later in the episode that he “wouldn’t do that” because Bregoli was “way too young” and joked that they would have to “say something offensive that people could take out of context.”
Lush added that the recording is “disturbing in hindsight” and called the outcry “a molehill turning into a mountain”.
“Not being funny seems to be the worst offense. When you mix a propensity for dark humor with a blind ambition to get attention, you sometimes get this kind of content,” Lush said. “Was being bold the best strategy? Certainly not, although it sometimes worked to get attention.”
The clips came as internet sleuths alleged that longtime MrBeast collaborator Ava Kris Tyson was inappropriately interacting with minors online.
Tyson’s past conversations with an underage teenage fan are under scrutiny, including public messages where the two discussed nude images and animated pornography. The fan denied any exploitation in a July 22 post on X, calling the allegations “massive lies and a distortion of the truth.”
In a Post from July 24 on XNate Weyman said he and the fan did unpaid technical work managing Tyson’s streams and that they all played video games together “for hours.” Weyman said Tyson had a private Discord server with about 10 people, mostly minors around the age of 14, and that he frequently spammed the server with pornographic images.
Tyson announced his departure from “all things MrBeast and social media” in a July 23 post on X. Donaldson posted on July 24 that he was “disgusted and opposed to such unacceptable actions” and that he was hiring independent investigators to look into the allegations.
Tyson has been the target of transphobic attacks since she came out last year. In April, Donaldson defended her close friend over a video that described her as a “nightmare” to MrBeast. Donaldson wrote on X that “this is getting absurd,” affirmed their friendship, and said “this transphobia” was starting to make him angry.
Last week, a former employee accused Donaldson of rigging contests in his videos, running illegal lotteries and defrauding his fans. The individual made the sweeping accusations under a pseudonym in a YouTube video that has been viewed more than 6.9 million times since it was posted last week.
Donaldson has not publicly responded to the unsubstantiated allegations. Chucky Appleby, who co-founded YouTube analytics platform ViewStats alongside Donaldson, said the former employee was fired within a month after displaying “erratic behavior.” In a July 29 post on X, Appleby denied accusations that MrBeast doctored videos and said it “would have been impossible to hide” scripted segments from the “countless people on set.”
“Jimmy spends untold amounts of money and time to ensure the integrity of what he does,” Appleby said. “I hate to see that undermined by a bunch of lies.”
AP sent direct messages to several social media users who made the series of accusations, as well as to the underage fan.
Matthew Wade, a sociology professor at La Trobe University who specializes in charity ethics, praised Beast Philanthropy for partnering with reputable philanthropic organizations. The “clumsy tone and occasional crudeness” of Donaldson’s style could have earned him “truly extraordinary reach” with nonprofits looking to drum up support for their causes, Wade told AP in an email.
But the risk calculations could change, he said.
“Charities and philanthropic foundations cannot gamble with their reputations,” Mr Wade said. “They must be seen as beyond reproach, and the constant accumulation of controversy around the MrBeast brand risks tarnishing the pristine shine of their own reputations all too easily.”
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