For those out of the know:

Video 1

Video 2 (CONTENT WARNING: Torture, SA)

I’m not much for YouTube drama but never liked Mr. Beast’s child lotteries and wealth glorification. If you wanted to improve society you could put that money into actual charity, but of course that isn’t a profitable strategy. Oh well.

  • fhqwgads@possumpat.io
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    5 months ago

    You might want to put a content warning on the second video, it’s pretty rough.

    The first video is largely about him running illegal lotteries, which is pretty terrible given the scale they operate at, but it’s something that the average person might not know about or really think about it being essentially child gambling.

    The second video is an interview with a former employee who was put in solitary confinement for a video that never made it to YouTube because it was actually just them torturing him. Like, legitimate Geneva Convention war crime torture. Constant noise, no idea what time it is because you can’t see the sun, constant lights so you can’t sleep, constant monitoring, and him running until his feet bled.

    If any of it is anywhere near true they need to be sued off the face of the planet in addition to going to prison.

    • Amputret@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      The interview in the second one really got to me. His mannerisms really remind me of a friend of mine, and the descriptions he gives of that abusive power dynamic reminds me a lot of similar experiences I’ve had, especially the inappropriate ’jokes’ made about deeply personal issues like his dad. Really hope that dude gets any help he needs.

      • Evrala@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        For a period of time illegal lotteries were fairly common on YouTube. I don’t know if anyone got in trouble for them but they mostly disappeared from the big channels as creators realized or were told “Oh shit, this is actually illegal.”

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      Do you have a timestamp for that interview in the video? I see the video is 50 minutes long and the first few minutes seem pretty odd. I’d like to see the good parts without watching the whole thing.

      • fhqwgads@possumpat.io
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        5 months ago

        It’s the second video, and it starts at like 4 or 5 minutes in. It’s almost the entire video long.

        • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          Cool thanks. I knew as soon as I asked for a timestamp I was going to get down voted. I watched the first 3 minutes and didn’t see anything resembling to what I was replying to.

            • Snapz@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Sorry, can you summerize your response please? I got to the “r” in “Bro” and then I saw a balloon outside of my window and lost focus…

    • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I don’t know man, this coming off of the whole Ava Tyson weirdo shit gives me a weird feeling. Also, that first video has had Mr. Beast’s employees debunk most of it, so I’m still sitting extremely skeptical about this.

      Do I think it’s possible a rich guy is a fucking piece of shit? Of course. Do I also think it’s possible the right wing anti trans nut jobs are exaggerating this? Yes.

  • Ech@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    No idea how valid the youtuber’s claims are, but it’s so obvious how manipulative beast’s videos are. And it’s wild how many people jump to his defense whenever his exploitation of people for videos is criticized. He made a literal Squid Games reenactment and people ate it up with zero sense of irony.

    • Donkter@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’ve commented flavors of this one or two times but:

      The major issue I have with Mr. Beast, if you watch any interview with him, is that first of all, he got his money by a fluke. It’s a little vague (I admittedly don’t watch much of his content and only tertiarily gained knowledge of him) but he got his initial money off of investing in Bitcoin super early and parlaying that into a YouTube career.

      The insidious thing about Mr. Beast is that if you watch his interviews, he thinks that he is an example of how the world is supposed to work. People are supposed to get obscenely rich by chance or by the occasional virtue and are then supposed to filter that money back down by giving back to the world like senor beast. The only problem is that there aren’t more people like him.

      It’s been his deal for a while but his sentiment is seen as wholesome because he plays it off by admitting “yeah I’m lucky so I’m just trying to give back.”

    • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I was a fan when I was younger, back when he was just some guy doing funny shit, but a mix of me growing up and him becoming more corporate caused me to stop watching.

      • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I went from ambivalent to angry when he started doing ads. He’s known to kids as “do what I say and you’ll make money”. And then he started saying “buy this thing”. Kids are stupid, so they’ll probably think if they buy the stupid mobile app he’s pushing, then they’ll become rich

    • Pandantic [they/them]@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      No idea how valid the youtuber’s claims are

      Did you watch the second video? That guy is fucked up by the experience Mr Beast put him through. Also, the child lottery allegations are right there for everyone to see (though most of the livestreams are taken off the official YouTube, some still exist out there). Plus, selling chocolates (that are actually not healthier) to kids while also doing the lottery thing is pretty shady.

    • demizerone@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      My friend couldn’t believe I didn’t think what MrBeast was doing was a good thing. People that profit from helping others in dire need just doesn’t sit right with me. Turns out MrBeast s a sociopath.

    • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      I was literally just talking about how much I distrust Mr. Beast and was shut down by my friends because “he make da funny bideos”. I’m basking in the vindication, silver linings and all that.

  • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de
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    5 months ago

    if anybody needed him to be exposed to make it clear what kind of person he is, you need to check your taste in videos. This guy has been making nothing but trash and it is beyond me that he has followers above the age of 13.

  • 58008@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Why do all of this dude’s video thumbnails look like the creepy waxen models on Kinder products?

    • protoBelisarius@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      They apparently did a pretty large scale test to decide if a video performs better when the mouth ist open or closed. Open mouth performed so much better that they even retroactively photoshopped their old videos thumbnails to add a open mouth smile to them. That might also contribute to them appearing creepy since they only changed the mouth.

  • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Never liked him. He exploits the significantly less fortunate for his own amusenent. Glad to see the world at least partially open it’s eyes .

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The saddest thing is, there were always complaints against Mr. Beast, but everyone dismissed them with “but what about charities” until one of his workers transitioned. For a long time, people even had bigger issue with Ava Tyson’s transition than her commissioning an artpiece from Shadbase that depicts an actual real-life minor.

  • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I don’t watch his content, so don’t know if he was running illegal lotteries. To be somewhat fair - a lot of people accidentally do that (the “no purchase necessary” stuff is important people).

    The accusations of illegally rigged contests are just wrong though. Not that they aren’t rigged (I don’t know about that), but that it’s illegal to influence or pre-determine the outcome. The FCC “quiz show” rules regarding that don’t apply to cable or streaming - only broadcast television.

  • cows_are_underrated@feddit.org
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    5 months ago

    To be fair, he does some sort of charity(as example when he build wells in Africa), but you’re right, Theres much better use for his money than 1m$ squidgame.