Online Influencers & Their Problematic Immunity
Numerous large content creators have been credibly accused of things like pedophilia, homophobia, and psychological manipulation. So why do people enable them to continue to make millions when they are proven to be bad people (and sometimes even criminals)?
Accountability
At the start of 2021, a rising YouTuber and streamer vanished into an e-void after it came to light that he had been sharing sexual messages with a minor.
That YouTuber was Carson King, better known by his username CallMeCarson.
The girl in question was 17 years old, when Carson was 19. She stated she felt pressured as someone who looked up to Carson so much to oblige with his commands.
Carson, who has since apologized and taken a months-long leave of absence, claims he knows the relationship was wrong, not just because of legal reasons but also because of the power imbalance between a surging online celebrity and a random fan Carson had just happened to have chosen to interact with.
But he also staunchly denies any allegations of pedophilia, something that even many of his critics has backed him on.
It’s fair to say a 19 year old dating a 17 year old where the 19 year old has significantly more power is bad. It makes the 17 year old more likely to become dependent on them in a way reminiscent of grooming.
However, a 17 and 19 year old dating also is not something that’s unheard of. If kids in different high school grades want to stay together when one is a senior and the other goes off to college, that’s a fairly common scenario and one that is socially acceptable by most people.
Nonetheless, the label of “pedophile” has been plastered to him by the internet, even if people are now being reasonable enough to understand that the age difference between them is not the primary issue.
Inconsistent Accountability
So you’d figure if someone like Carson got so much backlash for that, a bigger content creator doing something even worse would amplify their consequences. But that really isn’t the case, a lot of the time.
As previously mentioned, James Charles is an online make-up artist with a whopping 25 million subscribers. By contrast, Carson has just under 3 million subscribers as of right now.
Charles had a similar controversy this year. He was accused of sexting several boys between the ages of 15–17; he admitted to messaging two in his apology video.
But this wouldn’t mark the first time Charles has been accused of pressuring someone who didn’t or couldn’t consent.
In 2019, Charles, who is gay, was accused by fellow youtuber Tati of attempting to seduce straight men who were uninterested in him on more than one occasion.
Charles continued uploading from 2019 until this newer scandal, where he has also taken a leave of absence following an apology video.
Fortunately, he did face some consequences as a result of these actions.
He lost his largest makeup palette deal, and had his channel temporarily demonetized. But he still lives in his isolated world of luxury and stardom, with no shortage of young fans going as far as to use every fallacy in the book to defend what is indefensible.
The point is this:
Most of the internet can seem to agree James Charles doesn’t deserve the platform he has, given what he’s done with it in the very short time he has had it. But he’s not going anywhere, and once the dust settles, YouTube will re-instate his channel’s monetization because it will continue to make them money. James will profit off of his fans again because outside of mean tweets, people won’t actually do anything to de-platform him.
One Of Many
Charles just serves as the most notable recent example of surviving a massive scandal, but it isn’t exclusive to him.
Another example, and one that has been significantly less talked about is TikTok’s Zoe Laverne, who has just under 20 million followers on the app.
She has been a controversial figure within the community for some time now for her incidents with other creators & questionable things she has said, but one incident significantly trumps the rest: Her kissing & relationship with a 13 year old fan named Connor.
When she finally addressed the surmounting evidence against her, her primary reason for why she did what she did was that they loved each other and both consented to what went on between them.
The only problem with that is, well, in the eyes of the law and every mentally sane person, a 13 year old cannot consent to sex or a relationship with someone, especially someone older than them who is capable of consent.
Laverne initially faced tons of backlash when the allegations broke in late January. All of her posts from that time either are filled with comments mocking her or suggesting she should be removed from the platform.
Evidently, it became too much for Laverne at times, as about a dozen posts from then have comments disabled. If you look at her new videos’ comments, however, that backlash is gone.
In fact, all traces of what she did are nowhere to be mentioned. The comments pretty much consist of people who she’ll never notice calling her pretty and using the same fallacies people used to defend James.
Some examples of these fallacies (these are real user comments) include “So you’ve never came on too strong with flirting before?” in attempting to justify James’s alleged seducing of straight men — false equivalency.
I also saw the appeal “if you were in love and that person kissed you, would you not kiss back?” in attempting to justify Zoe making out with a 13 year old — a strawman argument.
Zoe has continued to gain followers through all of this because she fits the description of many other TikTokers who lip sync & dance; she meets the same conventional beauty standards favored by makeup companies & Hollywood.
And on the surface, who the person behind the account is looks no different than what you would see clicking on Addison Rae, or Bryce Hall’s accounts.
They look just like another young influencer living their best life. They don’t look like sociopaths who abuse their newfound platforms to gain what they want, whether romantically or sexually.
But many are, and they will continue to hide behind their persona as a means of making their true self and the version loved by fans into two entirely different people unless a stand is taken.