It’s safe to say that YouTube is one of the world’s most visited website, and it’s growing every day. People use the website to express their opinion, share their story and create content that’s seen by thousands of people. Recently, some popular Youtubers have been involved in scandals and have lost thousands of fans and supporters. We bring you a list of the Top 10 Worst YouTube Scandals.
#10. Sam Pepper
Sam Pepper is a British Youtuber who was known for his pranks. He has millions of subscribers and viewers worldwide.
In 2014, after he uploaded a controversial video titled ‘Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank’ that backfired quite quickly, Pepper faced claim by many girls of sexual harassment. He explained that the video was staged after the hashtag #ReportSamPepper was trending on Twitter. A Youtuber, Laci Green, wrote an open letter about violating women and it received more than 100,000 signatures.
Another scandal was his video titled ‘Killing Best Friend Prank’. The video was a prank to two internet personalities, Sam Golbach and Colby Brock. The video was compared to ‘ISIS-style execution’ by a British newspaper.
See also; World’s Top 10 Richest YouTubers.
#9. DaddyOFive
DaddyOFive is a Youtube Channel that was created by Michael Christopher Martin. It featured vlogs and pranks on his children with his wife.
The pranks began to become more and more extreme, and after another fellow Youtuber ‘Philip DeFranco’ covered the story, they were accused of abusing their children. In one of their controversial video, Michael and his wife berated their sons for spiling ink on the rug.
The children were removed from the parents’ custody after the prank videos, and the couple faces a maximum sentence of 5 years and $5000.
#8. Nicole Arbour
Nicole Arbour is a Canadian Youtuber who posted a controversial video titled ‘Dear Fat People’ on her YouTube channel in September of 2015. The video turned viral for endorsing fat shaming and became unavailable temporarily.
After uploading the video, she was fired from an upcoming movie and from her job as a choreographer. She later admitted that it was all a marketing scheme that earned her tens of thousands of dollars.
#7. Sam and Nia Rader
Sam and Nia Rader were like any other daily vloggers. That was until August 5th 2015, they uploaded a video titled ‘Husband Shocks Wife With Pregnancy Announcement’ and it went viral. 3 days later, the couple uploaded another video titled ‘Our Baby Had a Heartbeat’ where they revealed that they had a miscarriage.
People started to become skeptical of the method Sam used to test for pregnancy was not advisable and people started to claim that it might have been staged.
#6. Daniel Keem (Keemstar)
Daniel M.Keem, also known as Keemstar, is the host of the news show DramaAlert. He has millions of subscribes and viewers.
He has been involved in a few scandals, including racist allegation. However, on April of 2016, an old video from 2010 surfaced of him ordering a 15 years old to live stream herself naked. He stepped down from hosting DramaAlert but regained his position a week later.
#5. The Fine Brothers
Benny and Rafi Fine are online producers that have been creating content since 2004. They are famous for their React Series, which is an unscripted video of people reacting to things such as viral videos and trends.
In 2016, they announced that they are going to trademark the term ‘react’ and a percentage of the ad revenue from videos that have react style will go to their company. This move received a lot of backlash, which led them to lose almost 675,000 subscribers.
#4. Austin Jones
Austin Jones is a Youtuber from Illinois with millions of views. He is known for his entertaining acapella videos of song covers and have released a few albums during his career.
In 2015, it was reported that he had contacted several underage girls to film themselves twerking. He admitted the allegation and apologized in a video. But in 2017, Austin Jones was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport for two counts of production of child pornography.
#3. Toby Turner
Tobias Joseph Turner, also known as Tobuscus, is an American Youtuber who creates gaming and vlogging videos.
In 2016, another Youtuber ‘AprilEffff’ released a post claiming that Toby Turner abused, raped and drugged her during their relationship. Her claims included that he was a drug addicted and had cheated on many of his partners.
#2. Marina Joyce
Marina Joyce is a 20 years old Youtuber who makes beauty videos as well as other types of videos. She claimed in 2013 that she was sexual abused by Sam Pepper and in 2016, she released videos where she was acting erratically. The videos sparked rumors when she was heard saying in one of her videos ‘Help Me’.
The hashtag #SaveMarianJoyce trended on Twitter after fans believed she was held captive and were worried for her welfare and called the police.
In 2017, she revealed that she was suffering from depression. This gained her over two million subscribers.
#1. Pewdiepie
Felix Kjellberg’s channel Pewdiepie is the most subscribed channel on Youtube. He is known for his gaming videos and funny personality with over 56 million of subscribes as of 2017.
In January of 2017, he released a video where he asked people on the website Fiverr to display the message of ‘DEATH TO ALL JEWS’ and showed his reaction as a joke.
He received a lot of criticism following this video. In February, Disney dropped him after many report of anti-semitic videos.
Trisha Paytas
Trisha Paytas is a 29 years old internet personality. She has appeared on a lot of shows including Dr.Phil, The Ellen DeGeneres show and America’s Got Talent. She uploads videos that vary from fashion hauls to storytimes.
After her and her boyfriend Sean Van Der Wilt split up, she released a video titled ‘Is Sean Van Der Wilt Gay?’ after he was caught kissing another man in a gay bar. She was criticized for outing her boyfriend publicly, which is not acceptable.