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YouTube is a great place to watch your favorite stars goof off and keep it real, but sometimes the stars go way too far in their quest for views. During YouTube's history, several incidents took the internet by storm and set the Twittersphere ablaze with fury and shock. YouTubers were so innocent when they first started, but the demanding industry can quickly lead to insane (and sometimes hilarious) beefs between content creators as well as between couples.
From beauty vlogger drama to actual criminal cases, YouTube is definitely causing all the drama lately. Get ready to go "oh my god," à la Shane Dawson.
ImJayStation faked his girlfriend's death to get more subscribers.
Jason Ethier, aka ImJayStation, admitted in January 2020 he faked fellow YouTuber Alexia Marano's death to up his subscriber count on the platform.
"I thought of the idea: What if we fake your death and then do a skit on YouTube pranking everybody saying it was just to gain traction on the Dream Team channel?" Jason said in the video. "First, we were going to say she died, then we were going to do a Ouija Board video, which I did. Then we were going to call her at 3 a.m. and we were going to resurrect her and get more followers on our Dream Team channel."
Jason pointed out how Alexia was "down to make these videos with [him]." Of course, after Jason posted a now-deleted video saying she died (and later posted a now-deleted video of him going to her memorial), Alexia's parents called her and didn't like the videos, wanting them deleted.
Not long after, Jason said he fell asleep one day and woke up to find Alexia had left him, taking all her stuff, and ghosting him, subsequently ending their relationship.
After this happened, police arrived at Jason's place and said there's a warrant for his arrest from his girlfriend for assault with a weapon and assault. Jason denied the allegations and said he can't leave his house or he'll get arrested.
"I got a warrant out for something I didn't do. My girlfriend left me. The videos are gone. Our Dream Team channel is over with, and I don't know what to do."
ReSet sentenced to jail for an Oreo toothpaste prank.
YouTuber Kanghua Ren, aka ReSet, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and given a $22,300 fine after he filmed himself handing a homeless man an Oreo filled with toothpaste instead of creme.
A Barcelona court found him guilty of violating "the moral integrity of his prank victim" back in 2017, according to HuffPost. Though he probably won't actually serve any time in prison, since Spanish law "usually allows suspension of sentences of less than two years for first-time nonviolent offenders."
ReSet had monetized the Oreo video, which has now been removed from YouTube, and it earned him more than 2,000 euros (which equates to over $2,249). In the video, ReSet said this about the homeless man: "This will help clean his teeth ― I don’t think he has cleaned them since he became poor."
While this sentence may seem harsh for a non-violent offense, judge Rosa Aragonés explained how "this was not an isolated act," and that ReSet enacted "cruel behaviors" toward "vulnerable victims."
The court also ruled ReSet's YouTube and other social media accounts be shut down for five years.
YouTubers accused of promoting a scam.
This past year, YouTubers like Shane Dawson, Philip DeFranco, and h3h3Productions have promoted BetterHelp, an online counseling service that claims to provide professional and affordable therapy. Among other famous YouTubers, Shane and Philip have shared that BetterHelp is like having a counselor or therapist, but in the comfort of your own home via phone or online. But what seemed like an easy-to-use, supportive app might actually be a huge scam.
In early October, YouTubers KEEMSTAR and PewDiePie both criticized BetterHelp's questionable services. Though BetterHelp advertises that it charges $65/week for their counseling, its terms of service reveals that it will bill users on a monthly basis. Plus, according to PewDiePie, the fine print on BetterHelp's website previously disclosed that it "[does] not guarantee the verification of, the skills, degrees, qualifications, licensure, certification, credentials, competence or background of any Counselor." This statement has since been deleted from the website. Shady!
Amidst the backlash, BetterHelp CEO Alon Matas has asserted that the allegations against the company were "ridiculous" and"fueled by YouTube drama that took a life of its own." Phillip and boogie2988 have temporarily terminated their partnerships, but no word yet on Shane's relationship with the company.
Beauty vloggers slammed for racist comments.
Tensions among the YouTube beauty community were at an all-time high this year — and it revolved around none other than Jeffree Star.
Though Jeffree has been involved in A LOT of feuds in the past, his beef with Laura Lee, Gabriel Zamora, and Manny MUA might have been his most dramatic (and complicated) yet. After Shane Dawson's docu-series about Jeffree dropped in August, Gabriel shaded Jeffree, bringing up his racist comments from 10 years ago. In response, Jeffree's fans found offensive tweets from Gabriel, Manny, Nikita, and Laura. As a result, Gabriel, Manny, and Laura all posted their own remorseful apology vids.
Then, at the end of September, Jeffree wore cornrows for a Jeffree Star Cosmetics campaign. People were not amused. Jackie took to Twitter to criticize his campaign and racist comments in the past. Just a few weeks later, YouTuber Thomas Halbert posted a video about racism in the beauty community, referring to but not directly mentioning Jeffree by name. When Jeffree responded with text receipts that would clear his name, Thomas fired back by accusing Jeffree of blackmailing his friends, including himself. According to Thomas, Jeffree had made a compilation video with problematic moments captured while filming with YouTubers. Jeffree then hinted that he was spilling tea soon, though that video has yet to come.
Jaclyn Hill filed for divorce after 9 years with her husband.
In one of the most devastating YouTube breakups of 2018, Jaclyn and Jon Hill divorced after nine years together. After much speculation, the two posted their respective breakup statements on Instagram in May, and Jaclyn later shared a video where she got real AF about her divorce.
The statements fueled fans to dig up old tweets and videos where they low-key shaded each other. But in July, Jaclyn insisted on Twitter that she did NOT cheat on Jon. She wrote, "And for the record... no, I did not cheat on Jon at the end of the day, nobody on social media knows the full truth... Please stop trying to dig up shit to carry this on when him & I are both moving on."
Logan Paul filmed a dead body.
Arguably the biggest YouTube scandal ever — as far as public outrage goes — was Logan's video from the end of 2017/beginning of 2018 that showed a person who had committed suicide in Japan's Aokigahara, a.k.a. the "suicide forest."
While the deceased's face was blurred out, it was still 100% clear this person committed suicide. (Reminder: a vast majority of Logan's fans are kids.) Logan and his crew attempted to make gallows humor when they stumbled upon the body, but it quickly fell flat and angered the entire world.
Everyone from Debby Ryan to Aaron Paul to Jeffree Star condemned Logan's actions. Logan apologized, but that in and of itself created more controversy after it was alleged he monetized his apology video.
YouTuber sorta-kinda cut ties with Logan, eventually suspending all ads on his videos. However, not long after, YouTube let Logan monetize his work again.
During this monetize/de-monetization phase, Logan managed to piss people off yet again by tasering a dead rat. His other vlogs during his visit to Japan also sparked backlash, revealing how he treated the Japanese people, completely disrespecting their culture and customs.
Jake Paul accused FaZe Banks of assaulting his assistant.
In August 2017, Logan's bro, Jake, made a video accusing FaZe Banks — who just happened to be dating Jake's ex friend/bae, Alissa Violet — of assaulting Jake's assistant, Meg Zelly. Jake also accused FaZe of cheating on Alissa.
Jake alleged FaZe clotheslined Meg and left a nasty bruise on her neck. Even though Jake gave all the "facts" about this alleged assault, he was not present when it supposedly went down.
FaZe made his own video, providing his own side of the story. He claimed Jake and Team 10 were lying and trying to make him look bad — not to mention trying to destroy his relationship with Alissa. (He did note that he could've clotheslined Meg, as he was drunk that night, but he didn't remember doing so. If he did, it would've been unintentional.) FaZe revealed he was suing Jake and Team 10 for defamation of character and slander.
Interestingly, Jake lost 60,000 followers after the ~incident.~
Later, a member of Team 10 who was there the night of the alleged assault, Max Beaumont, quit the team and shared his side of the story.
Max flat out said he neither saw FaZe hurt Meg nor see FaZe kiss girls who weren't his girlfriend. Meg and Max had been friends for over seven years, but Max couldn't sit by and let FaZe be accused of something he didn't do. According to Max, Meg told Max that FaZe clotheslined her, but that it was an accident. She then showed Max the bruise. (Nasty bruises don't form instantaneously, FYI.)
Sam Pepper faked a kidnapping and murder.
Way back in November 2015, Sam Pepper teamed up with Vine star Colby Brock and basically traumatized Colby's friend, Sam Golbach.
In the video, a masked Pepper kidnapped Golbach (tossing him into the trunk of a car), tied him to a chair on a rooftop, and made him watch Colby being "shot." Golbach was screaming and crying and begging his captor to spare them. Golbach later learned it was all just a "joke."
To make matters worse, Pepper had already been in hot water a year prior to the kidnapping video. He posted the "Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank," showing him asking women for directions before pinching their bottoms. He was later accused of sexual harassment.
Pepper claimed the video was a "social experiment" and was staged.
Shane Dawson was accused of being a pedophile.
In January 2018, the YouTube channel Pop Blast — which has since been terminated after it was found to violate several of YouTube's policies — released a video titled "I think Shane Dawson is a pedophile. Here's my proof."
The video was an old, edited clip from Shane's podcast. In the vid, Shane discussed looking up "naked baby" online and called what he found "sexy." People began calling Shane a pedophile.
Shane made a video in response to fans' outrage, playing that part of the clip in full — which includes him quickly saying he was "kidding" after calling what he found during his naked baby search "sexy." Then, he explained his actions:
"I wanted to play that clip in full — that moment especially in full— just for context because that seems to be missing nowadays. I cannot believe I'm having this make this video," he said. "I'm going to start by saying I am not a f--king pedophile. I, Shane Yaw, my real name, go on record saying I am not a f--king pedophile. Got it? Great. There's my statement," he continued. "It's disgusting that people are saying I'm a f--king pedophile because of some s---ty ass f--king jokes from six years ago on a podcast."
Later, he said, "I'm sorry for making offensive jokes. I'm sorry that these are making people uncomfortable but it's also very out of context. When you listen to the full thing, it's still s---ty and creepy and bad jokes but it's not me being a pedophile. This is not proof of me being a pedophile."
PewDiePie made anti-Semitic jokes.
In January 2017, PewDiePie, a.k.a. Felix Kjellberg, shared videos that included anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery. Included in one video was a banner that read "Death to all Jews."
After the videos went viral, earning PewDiePie serious backlash, the Walt Disney Company severed ties with the YouTuber.
In a now-deleted video, PewDiePie kinda-sorta apologized: "I just want to reiterate that my intention was to show how stupid the website is and how far you could push it."
But then he decided to blame the media, particularly the Wall Street Journal, for their deep dive report on him.
"It was an attack toward me, to try and discredit me, to try and decrease my influence and my economic worth," he said. "These three gentleman from [Wall Street Journal] that did this are also very proud of this."
He then flipped off the camera, saying, "Try again, mother-f--kers."
But wait, PewDiePie still wasn't done. "Personally, I think they are the ones normalizing hatred because there is actual hatred out there," he said. "Instead of celebrating my show getting canceled, why don’t we focus on that instead."
Apparently, he didn't learn his lesson, because in September 2017, he said the n-word during a video game livestream. He released an apology video on YouTube shortly after.
"It was something I said in the heat of the moment," he confessed. "I said the worst word I could possibly think of, and it just sort of slipped out. I’m not going to make any excuses as to why it did, because there are no excuses for it." The YouTuber later called himself "an idiot."
DaddyOFive and MommyOFive lost custody of two children after allegations of abuse arose.
Michael and Heather Martin, a.k.a. DaddyOFive and MommyOFive, respectively, constantly shared videos on DaddyOFive's YouTube channel that many argued depicted abuse of their five children.
The videos were "pranks," but they appeared to cause the kids serious emotional, mental, and physical distress. Example: The kids were encouraged to beat each other up.
Two of the five kids are the biological children of Michael and Rose Hall, while the other three kids are Heather's biological children.
In May 2017, Michael lost custody of his and Rose's children, Emma and Cody. Rose was granted emergency custody of her kids.
Michael and Heather released an apology video, maintaining they loved their children.
In September 2017, Michael and Heather pleaded guilty to child neglect charges and were sentenced to probation, according to People.
Monalisa Perez accidentally killed boyfriend Pedro Ruiz III in a stunt gone wrong.
In June 2017, Monalisa and Pedro wanted more viewers, so they hoped to up the ante by having Monalisa shoot Pedro while he was holding a thick book.
Unsurprisingly, the stunt went horribly wrong and ended up killing Pedro. The stunt had been his idea. He thought the book would stop the bullet; it did not. His reasoning was that another book that had been shot had stopped the bullet.
The couple already had one child and Monalisa was pregnant with their second when Pedro died.
Right before the incident, Monalisa tweeted some unintentionally chilling words: "Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever HIS idea not MINE."
In December 2017, Monalisa pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Per The New York Times: "Local media reports said that a plea agreement called for Ms. Perez to serve 180 days in jail and spend 10 years on supervised probation, though The Pioneer Press said a judge would have the final say on her sentence."
Ragestew livestreamed himself trespassing on RiceGum's property and alleged he was beaten.
Back in August 2017, YouTuber Ragestew filmed a livestream of himself literally breaking the law (and low key bragging about it) by trespassing onto private property, with the goal of breaking into YouTuber RiceGum's house.
It should be noted Ragestew already broke into Jake Paul's Team 10 house.
While trespassing, he was opening gates and actually jumping into the property. Soon, YouTuber FaZe Kay and other people approached Ragestew and asked what the heck he was doing. Some kind of scuffle broke out (though you couldn't see anything on camera) and Ragestew was ultimately apprehended.
Of course, he managed to escape until a freakin' police helicopter was used to find him and arrest him.
This should've been an open and shut case, right? Wrong. Ragestew shared pics of his bruises and alleged FaZe Kay and company beat him up and stole stuff from him. FaZe Kay then made a video explaining what really went down, and how he didn't lay a finger on Ragestew.
Nicole Arbour openly encouraged fat shaming.
In September 2015, Nicole made a notorious video titled "Dear Fat People." In the six minute clip she savagely and mercilessly condemned people who were overweight and obese. She even went so far as to share an airplane story about literally pushing a person's fat into their seat on an airplane because it was in her space.
"Fat shaming. Who came up with that? That's f--king brilliant. Yes. Shame people who have bad habits until they f--king stop," is just one of the many heinous things Nicole said.
Nicole received serious backlash for the video, even reportedly losing a chance to choreograph the dance movie Don’t Talk to Irene. She told TIME her video was satire and how she felt it was "really important that we make fun of everybody," adding, "I think [what] brings us together and unites us as people is that we can poke fun at all of us."
Nicole was accused of being abusive towards ex-boyfriend and fellow YouTuber Matthew Santoro, also in September 2015.
In January 2016, Matthew “accidentally” uploaded a video to his public channel that was meant to be private, discussing the abusive relationship with an unnamed significant other. Nicole posted (and later deleted) her own response video to the allegations, calling them "not true,” according to Clevver News.
People willingly ate toxic Tide Pods for a "challenge."
Disclaimer: DO NOT EAT TIDE PODS.
Just because a bunch of teens and huge YouTube stars like GloZell Green filmed videos of themselves eating the detergent doesn't mean YOU need to do so as well. It's super dangerous and potentially lethal.
The Tide Pod Challenge took the internet by storm in early 2018, with stores going so far as to literally lock up the detergent packets like some places do with spray paint. This is why we can't have nice things.
According to CNN, poison control centers received the same number of calls during the first 15 days of 2018 as they did in ALL of 2016. Yikes.
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