Whether you’re a seasoned YouTube veteran or a total noob, you can’t ignore the fact that the video-sharing website has grown to become such a phenomenon that it spawns, on average, 457 YouTube stars every minute.
But much like the stars of TV and movies before it, the world of YouTube has already become littered with scandals and dodgy goings-on that can make it a bleak and horrible place if you delve deep enough. Just ask PewdiePie.
1. Sam Pepper fondles girls’ bums and fakes a kidnapping at gunpoint
Remember in that Jackass movie where they pulled off a rather naughty yet genius stunt in which ‘Danger’ Ehren was tricked into pretending to be a terrorist, only for him to get kidnapped by an angry man (actually an actor) and chucked in the back of a taxi, genuinely thinking his buddies had just been gunned down?
Well, while that moment kept elements of humour in a horrible situation and was put together in a surprisingly creative manner, former Big Brother star Sam Pepper decided to go full douche by faking the death of a fellow YouTuber, all in the name of the LOLs.
The ‘Killing Best Friend Prank’ video featured internet stars Sam Golbach and Colby Brock. In it, a masked Pepper kidnapped the pair (Brock was in on the prank), with Golbach having a bag put over his head and being shoved into the back of a car. Brock then helped Pepper tie him up, take him to a rooftop, and force him to watch Pepper ‘shoot’ Brock. Golbach was clearly distressed and sobbing with tears, before realising the whole thing was… a joke.
Over 100,000 people signed a petition for YouTube to remove the “ISIS-style” video. Golbach later said that the video’s message was “about living life to the full… not taking life for granted and loving it because it’s short”. To show what a great guy he is, Pepper said in response that he would delete his YouTube channel if $1.5 million was pledged to him.
But that wasn’t the only controversial video that Pepper created. A year before, he uploaded ‘Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank’, where he went up to women to ask for directions before pinching their bottoms. Soon after it was published, various women accused him of sexual harassment (allegations which he denied).
In response, he uploaded a video where the genders were reversed, explaining that the whole thing was a “social experiment” and that the video was “staged and scripted”. Fellow vlogger Laci Green later published a video addressing the allegations, and wrote him an open letter to “stop violating women and making them uncomfortable on the street for views”.
2. Fans got so concerned about Marina Joyce’s behaviour that police were called
Then-19-year-old YouTuber Marina Joyce was usually known for her quirky and upbeat personality, and so fans became concerned when the style of her video presenting dramatically changed, and was full of weird blank stares and off-camera looks. Viewers even thought they noticed a gun in the background.
They began debating whether she looked frightened and distressed, and noticed what they presumed to be bruises on her arms, and that she appeared to whisper the words “help me” at one point. It’s starting to sound like an episode of LonelyGirl15.
It got to the point where fans were convinced that she was involved in a trap set up by ISIS, after she arranged a 6.30am meeting with fans. Over 60 people tweeted that they had been suffering from anxiety and panic attacks from worrying about Marina so much. Experts described it as a serious case of “emotional contagion”, where one person’s emotions and related behaviours directly trigger similar emotions and behaviours in other people.
However, there was no kidnapping or scary influence or abuse. The Enfield police department ended up having to visit Marina and tweeted that everything was fine. She herself later said that it was “crazy” what happened but there were never any issues whatsoever.
Whether it was one big misunderstanding or a publicity stunt, it certainly helped Marina. She now has over 2 million subscribers.
3. A YouTuber claims his YouTuber girlfriend abused him
Nicole Arbour had already become one of the most reviled YouTubers out there thanks to her ‘Dear Fat People’ video in mid-2015. Critics claimed that the video endorsed fat shaming, and she was fired from her job as a choreographer for an anti-bullying video for kids.
Things got worse for Nicole in January 2016, when fellow YouTuber Matthew Santoro posted the video ‘My Abuse Story’, in which he claimed he had been in a physically and emotionally abusive relationship with her.
The video was originally set to private after Santoro ended their relationship, but was accidentally made public. Whoops. Oh well, after that “error”, he decided to just keep it that way.
Santoro claimed he was manipulated into keeping himself away from his friends and family because of Arbour’s jealousy, and was punched in the face. Arbour, who denied Santoro’s allegations, responded in a YouTube post, stating: “Heard the little bitch I dumped months ago is still trying to use me to get attention on his vlog channel. Ew.”
4. YouTube gamers are revealed as owners of a gambling site they promoted
If you ever want an example of a humongous conflict of interest, YouTubers Syndicate and TmarTn are all you need.
The pair – Trevor ‘TmarTn’ Martin and Tom ‘Syndicate’ Cassel – were major players in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community, where gamers spend their whole lives playing an outdated game and spending a silly amount of money on items like weapon mods or skins.
In 2016, it was revealed that the pair had not exactly been open about owning a CS gambling website. GS:GO is one of several sites that allow any user aged 13 and above to trade and gamble on weapon skins for actual money, and they had been heavily promoting said website in most of their videos. They would also show off their acting skills by celebrating wildly when they won prizes on their own site, prompting others to try and follow suit. Both denied wrongdoing and said that their involvement with the company had long been on public record.
“I created the site. I wanted to build something awesome for other people to enjoy and I played on it,” Martin later said. “Obviously, on my end, me playing on Lotto rather than other sites gives me an advantage because it promotes my own site, but it is not immoral, there is nothing wrong with it. I am 100% honest.”
5. The Fine Brothers attempt to copyright the word “react”
This is a case study in how to lose all of your fans in the space of a day by being greedy.
The Fine Brothers were among the most popular YouTube personalities, mainly thanks to their “React” series of videos, where kids, adults, animals and fruit all react to certain things. A simple concept that many others have put their own spin on since.
But then in January 2016 they announced plans to licence and trademark the whole “react” series, letting creators make their own versions of it (only with their permission). However, to do this they had to apply to trademark the term “react”, which is used in many videos unrelated to their channel.
This decision was met with backlash from their fans and other YouTubers, many of whom believed that they were trying to stop the creation of reaction videos by people unconnected to their channel.
Despite their insistence that they would not be “copyright-striking” and taking revenue from other types of reaction videos, others had reported multiple copyright takedowns of their work. All this led to a huge drop in their subscribers – around 675,000 – in protest.
Less than a month later, they rescinded all “react” trademark claims, apologised for angering their viewers, and carried on hoping no-one noticed. In time, they recovered their lost followers and now have over 14 million subscribers.
6. A Christian couple are accused of faking their pregnancy and miscarriage
Sam and Nia Rader became (brief) YouTube stars when they posted their ‘Husband Shocks Wife with Pregnancy Announcement’ video in August 2015. It quickly went viral and viewers loved the emotional and feel-good clip.
The video saw Sam secretly doing a pregnancy test from his wife’s wee (lovely), and surprising her with the results. However, three days later, they revealed that Nia had lost the baby after suffering a miscarriage in a video titled ‘Our Baby Had A Heartbeat’.
The couple explained that while they were saddened by the loss, they were seeking comfort through their faith in God. Sam said: “I just hope this video continues to be a way for God to shine his light through us.”
However, feeling towards the couple changed when they attributed their rise in subscribers to the miscarriage, writing: “Our tiny baby brought 10m views to her video & 100k new people into our lives. She turned our life around & brought us closer together.”
Yeesh.
Viewers further began questioning the sincerity of the initial pregnancy announcement when Sam announced that he had quit his job as an ER nurse to become a full-time YouTuber. And then it was revealed that he was one of many men who had signed up to Ashley Madison, the website where people arranged to cheat on their spouses. (Sam later confirmed he had an account, E! reports, but insisted he never cheated on Nia.)
Things got even worse when Sam confronted two other vloggers for their comments about Nia’s miscarriage at a vlogger convention, resulting in him being thrown out of the event. After taking a break from their YouTube channel, they eventually returned and have since welcomed an actual baby, their third in total, and have been charting their daily journey as parents for millions of fans.
But despite the couple’s denial, many viewers are still convinced that they faked the previous announcement to get more fans.
7. A YouTube news channel wrongly labels an elderly man as a paedophile
Daniel Keem, or Keemstar as he’s known online, is the host of popular YouTube “news” channel DramaAlert, and he dropped a huge clanger in January 2016.
He incorrectly accused a 62-year-old Twitch game streamer of being a convicted paedophile named John Philips, leading him to receive a vast amount of abuse and death threats.
However, it soon became clear that the gamer was obviously not the same person as Philips, what with Philips still being in jail and all. The person who “researched” the story had based it all solely on the gamer’s slight resemblance to Philips. By that reckoning, every elderly man with a beard and glasses is a sex offender.
Keemstar eventually uploaded a video saying that he screwed the pooch on this one, and the original video was taken down. Bit too late though, huh?
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