With major advertisers like Disney, Nestle, and Epic Games pulling out of advertising deals with YouTube, a number of content creators are blaming—and bashing—the YouTuber who exposed a “softcore pedophile ring.”
YouTuber MattsWhatItIs—whose real name is Matt Watson and who has about 26,000 YouTube subscribers—uploaded a video on Sunday where he revealed a “wormhole” that allows possible pedophiliacs to trade child porn with each other.
But instead of praising him, plenty of social media users are upset with him, and platform star Keemstar has continuously called him a fraud and said he’s trying to make a bigger name for himself.
On his video description, Watson wrote, “YouTube’s recommended algorithm is facilitating pedophiles’ ability to connect with each other, trade contact info, and link to actual CP [child pornography] in the comments. I can consistently get access to it from vanilla, never-before-used YouTube accounts via innocuous videos in less than 10 minutes, in sometimes less than five clicks. Additionally, I have video evidence that these videos are being monetized by YouTube, brands like McDonald’s, Lysol, Disney, Reese’s, and more.”
Watson, who’s received nearly 2 million views on his video, blamed YouTube for facilitating the problem.
But Keemstar and others have turned their ire on Watson with some YouTubers apparently worrying about another adpocalypse—the last time that occurred was in 2017 when some creators lost up to 80 percent of their revenue because advertisers were upset that their products were being attached to videos that included derogatory content.
Keemstar said Watson trying to expose pedophilia on the site was good, but “then he tried to ruin all of the YouTubers’ livelihoods by getting the new fans he got from this campaign to spam advertisers and pretty much try to start the next adpocalypse.”
The two YouTubers spoke on the phone where Keemstar said he tried to explain that attacking YouTube’s advertisers wouldn’t help stop the pedophilia problem, but “he keeps saying YouTube is doing nothing. Which is a complete lie.”
YouTube told the Daily Dot that it disabled comments on tens of millions of videos that includes minors. YouTube also said that it terminated 400 channels and reported other users to authorities.
“Any content—including comments—that endangers minors is abhorrent and we have clear policies prohibiting this on YouTube,” the spokesperson told the Daily Dot on Wednesday. “We took immediate action by deleting accounts and channels, reporting illegal activity to authorities and disabling comments on tens of millions of videos that include minors. There’s more to be done, and we continue to work to improve and catch abuse more quickly.”
Keemstar also called Watson a hypocrite, showing footage of what he said was Watson harassing a female walking down the street and asking her if she wanted to star in an adult video.
He’s not who he says he is!!! pic.twitter.com/vajGYaNGVE
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) February 19, 2019
Keemstar also derided Watson for monetizing his own videos.
This guy is trying to get advertisers to stop advertising on YouTube but puts 30 ads on his videos @MattsWhatItIs pic.twitter.com/PkbmfHDzy9
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) February 20, 2019
Others are also bashing Watson.
He’s purposely trying to usher in another Adpocalypse…
— Roberto Blake 🇺🇸🇵🇦 Creative Entrepreneur (@robertoblake) February 20, 2019
YouTube has problems, fixing them doesn’t mean you go telling people to call up advertisers…
This isn’t some heroic crusade, it’s a vendetta…
There won’t be a hole deep enough for you to hide in when this is through. Pedophiles are disgusting and little kids shouldn’t be uploading videos to YouTube. YouTube needs to do a better job at this shit. But you spreading your fecal matter ideas to ad companies?
— Gavagan (@RobGavagan) February 20, 2019
Clearly you don’t have a clue what the Adpocalypse did to 99% of the YouTube population. Creators with businesses that support their families. Their CHILDREN. And you want to start another one. Man. Plus all the other shady shit? You can go fuck right off.
— Gavagan (@RobGavagan) February 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/AlliAwesome420/status/1098588530811506688
In a new video, YouTube commenter Philip DeFranco said that the idea that YouTube is happy for this kind of content to appear on its platform is “an insane argument,” while another popular YouTuber said Watson is causing even more damage.
“Why is he assuming that the solution to a problem is to create a catastrophe,” Eion from popular YouTube channel Nerd City told the Verge. “That’s what he’s absolutely doing.”
Watson, though, has his defenders.
https://twitter.com/dulhunty/status/1098463294568845312
https://twitter.com/dulhunty/status/1098464206871965696
Watson seems to have remained mostly silent on social media for the past few days. But he’s benefited from the story he’s told. Since he uploaded his video, he’s added close to 11,000 new YouTube subscribers.
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