Tati Westbrook and James Charles’ falling out blurred the lines between poor business conduct and personal dispute. As the drama finally subsides, audiences and YouTubers alike should take note of the pitfalls that can come with public arguments.
It’s been quite a week for YouTube’s beauty community. As James Charles, Tati Westbrook, and Jeffree Star all weigh in with their own sort-of-apologies-but-not-really videos, fans have endured so much tea they could probably drown a ship.
All without so much as touching an eyeshadow palette.
Jokes aside, the recent public slander of James Charles and its subsequent backlash has left the YouTube community with plenty of food for thought. It’s a lesson on what not to do when a close friend takes up a questionable sponsorship deal and how hyperbolic accusations can draw an unwanted amount of attention.
The drama also serves to demonstrate how online celebrities can quickly become the centre of mainstream attention, drawing in tens of millions of viewers that rapidly alter subscriber numbers and escalate the severity of the situation.
So, what can YouTubers do to stop this sort of thing happening in the future?
For starters, keeping some things private is probably a wise decision moving forward, regardless of how explosive the content might be.
Tati herself is clearly uncomfortable with having reached the elusive 10 million subscriber number almost overnight. Viewers and engagement is all well and good, but when it comes mostly for scandalous reasons, it can take a significant amount of integrity away from your reputation. Plus, keeping those new viewers for the long haul is tough.
Drama can only last so long, people.
Secondly, mixing personal issues and private social conversations with business practices is never a good move. Tati’s now-deleted video on James titled ‘BYE SISTER’ called him out for what she described as ‘creepy, predatory behaviour’ toward straight men, including a waiter that he believed he could hook up with solely based on being famous. Not cool.
But it turns out this wasn’t really the case, according to James’ follow up video and an explanation from the waiter himself. This is all after Jeffree Star had also thrown his voice into the ring, calling James a ‘danger to society’. Confused yet?
Basically, creators and influencers need to be more careful with the labels they throw out and the indictments they make. Having millions of followers on hand can quickly become a mob. If it turns out your statements are untrue or exaggerated, you risk damaging your career and credibility, as well as causing a ton of hurt for the person on the receiving end. Everyone loses.
It’s important that actual sexual abusers and predators face the consequences of their actions and by falsely painting someone with the same brush, you damage the weight such accusations hold.
It seems clear that Tati made this original video on James because she was primarily hurt by his business decisions, which of course is justified, but to mix this with statements you aren’t 100% confident in is disingenuous and borderline defamation. Both Tati and Jeffree have since explained they’re in ‘dark places’ and have called for the backlash to simmer. This still doesn’t excuse the labels they placed on James without having proper evidence, but it’s at least a commendable attempt to calm the situation.
https://youtu.be/ss1eJIzjRlE
What will YouTube be doing moving forward?
Instances like this paint YouTube in a bad light.
Scandals have never been too far away from its top creators. Shane Dawson faced backlash for edgy, offensive jokes several years ago, while Logan Paul filmed a real suicide victim for a vlog at the start of 2018.
Fast forward to this year, and James’ unprecedented loss of 3 million subscribers over the span of a few days became the subject of news sites across the globe. Live streams comparing James and Tati’s live subscriber counts are available to watch right now.
Subscriber competition has caused problems in the past and has led to creators facing intense backlash – something that the site is looking to tackle in the imminent future. It’s not surprising, then, that YouTube will soon be limiting how closely the public can follow subscriber counts. After the new change is implemented, viewers will only be able to see to the closest million for big creators, hopefully diluting the intensity of the rivalry between channels.
This will potentially alter the way Social Blade, the popular social media stats website, is used to monitor creator growth. The wider implications are currently anybody’s guess, mind.
A call for a better YouTube
All in all, I’m hoping this is a little bit of a wake-up call for YouTubers who publicly ‘expose’ one another without due reason. This has caused a lot of damage to the reputations of those involved, and I doubt that either Tati or James will be able to move away from this completely for a long while.
Private matters should be kept away from followers, fans, and subscribers, as all those eyeballs will always create additional mess that makes everything all the more confusing and hurtful. YouTube should be a place for collaboration, discussion, and entertainment, and less about public spats and creator conflicts. Transparency is important, but sometimes things are better settled off camera.
Here’s hoping that the platform will be less of a wolf pit and more of a supportive space moving forward. We’ve seen it on YouTube before and I know we can see it again.
I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.
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