Over the past week, allegations that Ava Kris Tyson "groomed" a minor have spread all across social media fueled by anti-trans rhetoric. They caused Tyson to step down from MrBeast and Jimmy Donaldson to disavow his former friend.
Here's what happened.
I'm in the minority here, but I really liked the new idubbbz video. It's clearly pissed off a lot of the edge lords, aka the people he's calling out.
I will always believe that an influencer is responsible for the audience they cultivate and it's good for him to acknowledge that.
It's clear from the viral response and the creators I spoke with that Hbomberguy's latest video on plagiarism really resonated with everyone who consumes content.
My latest piece with thoughts from
@ShadowTodd
,
@Q_Review
, and
@ScottNiswander
.
After years of silence, the father and step-mother of Onision have finally broken their silence. Here is our exclusive interview with the pair and what they've been through over the past three decades.
At Open Sauce, I met
@PirateSoftware
and moderated a panel he was on. Afterward, we sat down for a chat about his rise to stardom and ferret farms. He's as charming off camera as he is on.
Thanks to
@annaroseiovine
for the edits!
Journalist
@gaywonk
on Steven Crowder: “I’m an easy target, because I come off as stereotypically gay and make arguments about politics...I think his fans come after me because they’re just following the leader.”
Onision showed up to court, wouldn't talk to anybody and then dismissed both cases against Chris and Repzion. I'm not sure what I expected but this seems about right.
None of the creators I spoke to had any idea that the shows they worked on were being removed from HBO Max. Zero communication from Discovery/Warner before or after.
My latest:
Animated show 'OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes' was one of 36 programs removed from HBO Max in August. “We are not sure how the show being available to people was a problem in any way,” says 'OK K.O.!' creator Ian Jones-Quartey
@ianjq
.
Created by Vivienne "Vivziepop" Medrano, Hazbin Hotel has become one of Amazon's most popular animated shows.
But hundreds of freelancers worked on the project, some of whom had poor experiences they've been afraid to speak up about.
Speaking with those that knew Etika over the past few weeks really showed me how much he was loves by his friends and the community. Here's our story
#JOYCONBOYZFOREVER
Jacksepticeye is launching a comic book, podcast, and coffee brand! I spoke to the undeniably charming
@Jacksepticeye
about these new ventures and more!
A journalist covering the Lillee Jean story reached out to her, she then doxed me and threatened legal action to his boss.
YOU DOXED ME TO THE JOURNALIST COVERING YOUR DOXING. HOW DUMB ARE YOU?!?
In a turn of events that isn't the least bit surprising but still shocking, our Lillee Jean story has been removed from Google Search because of a DMCA copyright strike.
So, if you could share the article and give it some love, that would really help.
I ask these 3 things:
1) DO NOT contact the people in this story. Deborah is a nurse the front lines fighting COVID-19
2) YouTubers or content creators are more than welcome to use my work, as long as proper credit and a link is added.
3) Share :)
Can confirm this video is legit, no idea how it got out though Chris. Hansen and a camera crew showed up to Onision's Airbnb.
Kai and Onision opened before quickly shutting the door in his face. Police were called and everyone dispersed.
"You have no autonomy. You’re alienated for your labor. Your boss is a fucking piece of shit. And then, you see a random clip out of context of this guy who doesn’t have any of those things."
I spoke with
@hasanthehun
about his recent viral controversy.
I'm glad Onision took time out from his busy schedule of emailing me to scream into a mirror and on the floor shirtless about how he "needs to stop blaming everyone but" himself.
For years, Lillee Jean and her mother Laura, have sent threats, insults, and even doxxed creators speaking out about them. Some fled the platform, others live in a state of anxiety.
While reporting on their stories, they tried to do the same to me.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had multiple conversations with Vincent Nicotra about his recent behavior. On Sunday, he mentions in passing that he still has possession of the laptop and phone Sarah had sent out in November. I thought that sounded really strange. 1/
Here's our story on the seemingly open FBI investigation into Onision. They have still not reached out to Sarah
Thank you to the internet detectives who choose to remain in the shadows.
I agree, this article is really, really bad. It completely ignores the power dynamic issue and the fact that Ballinger would bring minors on stage to mock them. Adam comes off as a chicken little, complaining about an imaginary falling sky rather than an actual victim.
this article is laughable, the journalist is working closely with colleen ballinger's lawyer and the journalist is ON THE RECORD LYING about information about me that is proven i told the truth about. they quote things against me that i have shown VIDEO proof of and TEXT proof.
I still have my interview with Onision that I never published because he just rambled conspiracy theories and points that can be proven wrong.
I doubt "dreamy Creamy Keemy" as Etika called him, will have that same restraint.
With all the
#newgrounds
discourse on Twitter today, I thought it would be about 20 years of the Portal. It wasn't, so I decided to write it up (with some kind words from
@TomFulp
) on the subject
Last week, Twitch streamer Prod1gyX was arrested for child rape and molestation. His two youngest stepsons made allegations against their father that resulted in his wife calling CPS. He is being held on $200,000 bail.
autoplay Twitch embeds have now come all the way to political sites (Politico) for...Words with Friends
100,000 'viewers' for Words with Friends from 'crown'
Interviewing Onision for an hour and a half truly tested my patience. He took no responsibility and deflected every question.
When asked if he lives in an echo chamber, he told me "no, my husband disagrees with me sometimes."
Now he just sends me mean emails :(
Lillee Jean and her mother Laura have sent a half dozen emails over the past week to my bosses threatening legal action if we publish this story.
In her latest attempt to kill the piece, she emailed the private name of our publisher, which he never shared and isn't public.
An Onision Discord call for his private subscribers right after Hansen showed up has leaked. The voices who pay him sound very young and believe what he says.
"Do you guys know what it's like to be so famous you have to wear sunglasses wherever you go?"
Getting arrested for content might keep your audience happy for now, but who knows how far you'll have to go?
Did these creators learn nothing from Ice Poseidon and that era of prank YouTube?
Colleen Ballinger is in the midst of her online reckoning, with a collection of her former fans calling out the inappropriate interactions they had with her (and her associates) over the past two decades.
This was a tough one to write.
My latest:
There are too many people on here dismissing Amouranth's situation and it kind of bothers me.
She is one of the smartest streamers I've interviewed and to blame her for not leaving is just an affront to abuse victims. There's still a lot we don't know.
Amouranth has revealed that she has a husband, along with revealing his abuse
He has threatened to kill her dogs, take all their money, and forced her to stream.
(1/4)
With that stated, and the greater deeper and enlightened details, I more than proudly present to Every one of you all my own interpretation of
#TheLastSupper
, original painting by
#leonardodavinci
. And believe me, with that landscape painting,…
Chris said in a statement that he “called the FBI immediately but didn’t want to ship it around without knowing the proper chain of custody. Time went by and (he) didn’t hear anything back. This morning (he) spoke to his connections at the FBI again.” 5/
END
How can a story that's entirely someone else's quotes have my own opinion in it? My opinion of these emails is that he's trying to make me feel like we did a bad job, don't think it's going to work
Two years ago, I wrote a story about streamer Graphist/Black who had at least four different women come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment. Twitch never banned him.
I'm a little hesitant to see this as anything but a PR move.
Twitch says it will begin issuing permanent suspensions to the most severe allegations and cases. as most of the alleged incidents took place off Twitch the company states they will need more information with some cases being reported to the authorities
The package sat with Vincent; unopened for months.
I don’t like to get involved in the stories I cover, that isn’t my job. But I knew that Sarah didn’t know what was going on and after conversations with Chris and Vincent, her devices were shipped back to her this morning.4/
When reached for a follow-up interview, Onision said he is charging "$10,000 for unbiased and $350,000 for biased interviews." When we declined to pay, he sent this as a statement.
When I interviewed Sarah back in December, she was confident that the FBI had both her laptop and cellphone, which contained messages sent to Kai when she was still underage. Vincent had told Sarah that the “hard drive is being sent to the FBI.” That never happened. 2/
Over the past month, some current and former Spindlehorse freelancers and employees described their experiences as “positive” and “sometimes idyllic.” Others felt the studio was “disorganized,” plagued with “very tight deadlines,” and offered low but “industry average pay.”
Vincent said that the original plan was to copy the data on the devices and then send it to the FBI. The package was shipped on November 7 to Vincent’s address under Chris’ name. Vincent claims that Chris Hansen told him “not to touch it and to wait for further instructions.”3/
If you visit the Hansen Vs. Predator website right now, all the links to Chris' channel and content on the website is no longer accessible. The banners now say "COME BACK SOON" and "check back later!"
The Hansen vs. Predator (which Vince has been.changing) now shows Hansen's January 2019 mugshot along with a collection of memes.
Vincent says "the brand should reflect him. The site is suspended until Chris pays what he owes."
I personally believe that a content creator should be held accountable for the audience they cultivate. They fostered that community with their content, so if fans go off and do edgey things, it's not that shocking when you know the content they engage with.
Here's our profile of
@MrBeastYT
and his insane rise to fame on YouTube. This has been in the works for weeks and is finally ready for the world to see
Tucker Carlson took my reporting, lied about it (authorities never confirmed Barbara has dementia) and used it to push his culture war agenda.
What a wild ending to a wild week.
The Ankha dance trend takes Animal Crossing and combines it with furry porn, that
@haasch_palmer
and I had to watch a lot. Thanks to
@zone_tan
for her insight.
These kids love parrotting the hateful rhetoric of the Red Pill movement, sharing what they've learned to the influencer who taught it to them.
Sneako is, and should be, uncomfortable having to face the children listening to his rhetoric.
It's all just a grift.
There's a rumor going around that Chris Chan escaped jail through the bathroom window of a courthouse. It seems to be completely made up.
I just spoke to someone at the jail holding Christine and as "far as they know" she's still there.
Over time, the studio grew a need to be more professional but it's continued to struggle. There's no dedicated HR department, artists are sometimes handed broken assets, and low pay is fairly common.
Spindlehorse started as a small indie collective that had to "quickly shift from being a group of mostly friends working on a passion project together to essentially a full-sized studio in a very short time" one artist said.
Hey
@chrishansen
, I know you don't like
@JohnSwanYT
but Anonymous Gene has just doxxed his family and sister.
Gene is doing this because Swan is a detractor of yours.
Asking him to stop is the least you can do.
On the state of
@twitch
,
@slasher
says “The primary concerns from the streamers and a large portion of the Twitch community is over the moderation decisions being made, or not being made a lot of the time
Some artists, like
@KenDrawsArt
and
@squiderdoodle
have come forward with their own stories in the past, but most of the people I spoke with were fearful of retaliation from the fandom and the studio for speaking out.
@Fr2dM2rc0ry
I think that's the point I was trying to get across. Like their are serious problems, but the creative industry is full of issues like these.
But they won't get better unless you call attention to them.
Over the past few days, I've been emailing Russian scammers trying to figure out this phishing scam. Thank you to
@NeebsOfficial
and
@GamerThumbTV
for sharing your stories
Over the past few weeks, multiple new allegations against Ava Kris Tyson have appeared on social media. I dug through half a million Discord logs, hundreds of tweets, and the noise of MrBeast's fan base to tell their stories.
Here's my big announcement:
I'll be joining
@thisisinsider
as a digital culture reporter. Incredibly excited to join this amazing team and get back to the journalism grind.
😎😎😎
Spending an hour with
@MitchJonez
this week, I learned that he was more than just a drama magnet on the periphery of Twitch's top creators. With a decade of history on the platform, he's grown and wants his content to reflect that.
The internet writing system is broken, with outlets prioritizing sensationalism or SEO word jumbles to appease the algorithm. It's sad work that burns us writers out.
Oh, my channel is back. Just as much of a surprise as when it disappeared. Total lack of communication from
@TeamYouTube
.
For future reference, maybe don't rely on algorithms when it comes to terminating creators' channels.
weird how relevance in media basically requires a side hustle: a podcast, a newsletter, something completely unrelated to the work of journalism but necessary for building a fanbase
Chris Hansen has been charged with "Harassment- Communication in Manner to Cause Alarm" in New Jersey Municipal Court. When asked for comment, Hansen said he knew "nothing about it."
More details on the way.
Now that Randy Pitchford has gone back to shit talking journalists, it would be good to mention that he's currently being sued for defamation by a former employee and for destroying a USB that "contained underage pornography" before it could be used as evidence in a 2019 case.
A seemingly lost pilot for a Kingdom Hearts television show was dropped on YouTube this week by creator
@SethKearsley
.
“I was convinced that not only that it would go, that it would crush. Instead, I was crushed when it didn’t go."