YouTube demonetized one of its biggest creators on Tuesday when Shane Dawson faces a count of past videos that included racist pranks and the sexualisation of minors, as well as his involvement in last year’s drama that nearly destroyed her career. YouTuber beauty.
The platform has suspended the ability to monetize views with ads on all three Dawson channels indefinitely, according to YouTube. Dawson, who has been on the platform for over 15 years, has been considered one of YouTube’s greatest creators and has sometimes been referred to as the “King of YouTube”.
But in recent weeks, Dawson has been called to task for his past behavior, including racist sketches showing the black face, a video showing him sexually gratifying to an 11-year-old Willow Smith poster, and accusations that he worked. to orchestrate the cancellation of another content creator.
On Friday, Dawson made a 20-minute video that addressed his racist videos and the times he made jokes about pedophilia, acknowledging that his previous apologies were not enough.
He said he regretted having contributed to the normalization of the black face and the N word, realizing that his sketches made his young audience believe those things were fun when they weren’t.
“Blackface was something I did a lot of, like I did a lot on my channel, and there is no excuse for it. There is literally no excuse, “said Dawson. “I made a video six years ago talking about it and made excuses. And I knew it was wrong, I never wanted to do it again, but I didn’t do the job. I didn’t really examine the story and why it’s so wrong, and why people were so upset. “
The 31-year-old internet celebrity told her audience that she made humorous attempts rather than dealing with her own personal problems and past childhood trauma, which she admits she shouldn’t have done.
“When I say that I hate that person, I say it in the most intense way possible. I really hate that person, “said Dawson. “That person was full of sadness, full of anger at her own problems, in the closet, constantly projecting herself on others. I don’t know … that person is someone I don’t like to see. “
At the end of the video, titled “Take responsibility,” he briefly mentions another wave of backlash against him on the platform and on social media. Dawson has been accused online of planning an attempt to discredit James Charles, a 21-year-old YouTuber who shot to fame as a teenager by creating makeup videos.
Last year, fellow “beauty guru” Tati Westbrook made a video in which she said she was disassociating with Charles because she had been having trouble with his behavior, finding him inconsiderate and often offensive.
She said at the time that she felt used after Charles struck a trade deal with one of her competitors. Westbrook also mentioned in her video last year that she felt Charles, who is openly gay, is inappropriately trying to woo straight men.
Charles initially lost around 3 million YouTube subscribers after the backlash, but has since regained double that number of subscribers.
Dawson spoke directly to Charles in his video on Friday, apologizing for his now-deleted Twitter comments that said Charles needed to be humiliated.
“First of all, nobody deserves what happened, nobody. The whole internet attacks you, nobody deserved it, ”Dawson said in the video. “And who am I to say that someone needs to be humiliated?”
Westbrook made a new video Tuesday in which he accused Dawson and Jeffree Star, another YouTuber beauty with a huge following, of manipulating their feelings about Charles’s behavior. Westbrook accused Dawson of telling him one day when he and Star were at his home that Charles was “a monster” who was hurting “minors.”
Dawson allegedly told Westbrook that he and Star were doing a docuseries for YouTube and were planning to expose Charles’s predatory behavior.
“Shane said he planned to interview the victims of the docuseries, he told me that something had to be done to prevent him from hurting more people,” Westbrook said Tuesday. “Over the next few weeks, he and Jeffree gave me so much information that I felt sick. Almost every day there was more information and new complaints. “
Westbrook claimed that he was “beyond the gas light” when his own personal problems with Charles peaked last year, having believed that Dawson and Star had evidence of Charles’s alleged misbehavior. He then made his video denouncing Charles, he said, and let Dawson know the night before it was posted.
“After a few days of Jeffree fanning the flames on Twitter, no victims appeared as they said it would happen,” Westbrook said Tuesday. “And no evidence was presented as they said it would happen.”
Westbrook alleges that she was confused after her video was made public and her relationship with both men dissolved. She said Dawson never approached her to see how she was doing and that she had asked Star to exclude her drama with Charles from the Star and Dawson docuseries.
The docuseries also served as a launch pad for an eyeshadow palette and other products made by Dawson in collaboration with Star beauty company Jeffree Star Cosmetics. After the product launched in November, Star reported that they sold the 60,000 units in the palette in less than 30 minutes.
Westbrook, who said he is seeking legal action, claims that the paddle is in part what led the two men to allegedly manipulate it to speak out against Charles. She claimed to have evidence of her actions, but did not disclose it due to possible legal action.
She said it was her opinion that both men were jealously bitter about the success of James Charles and that they were not content with “being in his shadow” when he rose to fame on YouTube.
“And it’s also my opinion that Jeffree and Shane needed James to be sidelined and out of the way for their November release of the Conspiracy palette, along with Shane merchandise,” said Westbrook.
Dawson’s fiancé Ryland Adams responded to Westbrook’s video on Tuesday, calling it a “master class” in manipulation.
“The only thing to save his reputation was to side with the person he tried to screw up,” Adams wrote on Twitter. Make no mistake. This 40-year-old woman chooses to post a video on her own. “
Neither Dawson nor Star immediately responded to a request for comment from NBC News.
Social Blade, a third-party website that tracks YouTube analytics like video views and follower count, has reported that Dawson has lost 600,000 followers since Friday. She currently has 22.5 million subscribers on her main YouTube channel.
