MrBeast acknowledges past ‘inappropriate language’ amid controversy
FILE - US YouTube personality Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, arrives for the 36th Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California, on March 4, 2023. (Credit: MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images)
MrBeast, one of YouTube’s biggest stars and a renowned philanthropist, acknowledged on Wednesday that he used "inappropriate language" during his early days online.
This comes after numerous controversies began to bubble up about him and a former collaborator in recent weeks.
Who is MrBeast?
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is a YouTuber known for his outrageous challenges and very generous gifts.
He has amassed a record 307 million subscribers on the video platform.
His latest uploads include "Ages 1 - 100 Decide Who Wins $250,000" and "I Built 100 Houses And Gave Them Away!" which, like most of his videos, garnered more than 100 million views.
The philanthropic sector has received this content with a mix of praise for encouraging direct generosity and criticism of exploitative "inspiration porn." Donaldson's greater ambition made itself plain in recent years through the launch of his snack brand Feastables, a branded burger chain with reviews bad enough that he sued the company behind it, and an Amazon Prime Video deal for a 1,000-contestant reality competition show.
But before overtaking YouTube with his often-absurd charitable acts, Donaldson built a sizable following as a gaming content creator who sometimes interacted with viewers on livestreams.
Influencer exposed
Two clips circulating on social media showed Donaldson in a far more unflattering light compared to his do-good persona portrayed on his YouTube channel.
In a 2017 clip circulated by YouTube influencer Rosanna Pansino in a July 24 post on X, Donaldson responded to a viewer who commented about selling Black people for money and said that "the most I would pay is probably 300." Donaldson also used a homophobic slur at multiple points. After one commenter repeated a racial slur, Donaldson eventually instructed his audience to stop using that word in the chat.
Pansino told The Associated Press she’d worked on various potential business ventures with Donaldson over the last several years, though none ever launched. Last fall, she complained publicly about an edit of her appearance in a MrBeast video, though eventually deleted the posts after she said she received death threats from fans.
Pansino said that contrary to popular opinion, it’s "just not true" that Donaldson has always made "family friendly content."
In a separate clip from a May 2017 podcast appearance, Donaldson suggested he would have sex with the rapper Bhad Bhabie, whose real name is Danielle Bregoli and who was 14 years old 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 on X last week. Lush said Donaldson clarified later on the episode that he "wouldn’t do that" because Bregoli was "way too young" and had joked they should "say something offensive that people can take out of context."
Lush added that the recording is "cringe in hindsight" and dismissed the outcry as "a molehill turning into a mountain."
Ava Tyson controversy
What’s more, internet sleuths alleged that longtime MrBeast collaborator Ava Kris Tyson interacted inappropriately with minors online.
Some of Tyson’s past conversations are under scrutiny including public posts where Tyson and an underage teen fan discussed nude images and anime pornography.
The young fan denied any wrongdoing on Tyson’s part and said the accusations of inappropriate behavior were "massive lives and twisting the truth," according to a July 22 X post.
Nate Weyman, who played video games with Tyson, revealed on July 24 that he and a fan had done unpaid technical work running Tyson’s streams.
They would play video games for hours and Weyman claimed Tyson had a private Discord server with about 10 people who were mostly minors around 14 years old. The server they were playing on would be frequently spammed with pornographic images.
Tyson announced her departure from "all things MrBeast and social media" in an X post published on July 23.
Tyson has been the target of transphobic attacks since she came out last year as transgender. Last April, Donaldson defended his close friend against a video describing her as a "nightmare" for MrBeast. Donaldson wrote on X then that "this is getting absurd," affirmed their friendship and said "this transphobia" was starting to anger him.
Rigged contest accusations
A former employee accused Donaldson of rigging the contests in his videos, running illegal lotteries and deceiving his fans. The person made the sweeping accusations under an alias in a YouTube video that has reached over 7.1 million views since it was posted last week.
Donaldson has not publicly responded to the unsubstantiated claims. 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 fakes videos and said it "would have been impossible to hide" scripted segments from the "countless people on set."
"Jimmy spends unfathomable amounts of money and time to ensure the integrity of what he does," Appleby said. "I hate to see it come into question with a bunch of lies."
The Associated Press sent direct messages to several social media users behind the range of accusations, as well as the underage fan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.