In recent years, alongside the rise of YouTube and its status as the paramount source of internet entertainment, there have been a number of scandals related to content creators on YouTube (or “YouTubers”). This isn’t a huge surprise. Celebrities are people too, and like people, can do scandalous things. Of course, considering their platform, it’s a much more extreme offense, as they have a considerable amount of influence on others as opposed to most private citizens. Recently, many YouTubers, specifically male YouTubers, have been accused of sexual abuse. This list includes YouTubers like Onision, Alex Day and of course, the recently accused Tobuscus, who was called out by an ex-girlfriend for being sexually abusive, pushing drugs onto her and raping her. This might come as a surprise to a few of you who know of Tobuscus, but may not have heard about this story, despite its recent surge in popularity – and there’s a reason for that.
The reason is simple. Because of their vast fan bases, there are often zero repercussions for these men, and without significant change in the way we view this problem, there never will be. At the end of the day, these women are powerless to stop hordes upon hordes of diehard fans, intermingled with sprinklings of anti-feminist or “meninist” hate groups. April Efff, the original accuser of Tobuscus, has been all but entirely silenced by these voices, and has had no chance of taking this issue to court – or any desire to, for that matter. This isn’t uncommon, either. Onision’s exes were belittled by smear campaigns and forced into silence and Jason Viohni hid behind his Mormon upbringing and alcohol dependency (the video explaining this has since been removed by Viohni), to name a few. Both have yet to be convicted or tried for their crimes.
However, this isn’t exclusively the case. Sometimes, these men are outed and actually searched, as in the case of Mike Lombardo, who plead guilty to receiving child pornography and was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of five years in prison, or Sam Pepper, who has been investigated by the LAPD (although, he was never arrested). It is important to note, however, that women who seek justice for being violated by these men are often met with a hefty opposition of social outcry against their claims, and often unable to see justice served. With Mike Lombardo and others, it wasn’t until either a larger entity was pressed by a large number of fans and the accused that anything was done to put a stop to it, and with Sam Pepper, even that wasn’t enough. Onision hasn’t even been investigated, despite the countless number of offenses he’s racked up over the years. Tobuscus has had numerous people close to him come out to back up April Efff’s claims against him and still, nothing has been done, even with physical evidence.
The problems don’t stop there. The women attacked are also particularly vulnerable, and nothing is being done to make things safer for them as the situation becomes more and more dangerous. The women abused in these situations, frankly, are either fans of these YouTubers, or are popular YouTubers in their own right. This is absolutely terrifying, considering the audience for these YouTubers and other online media continues to skew to a younger audience and that allegedly, these men specifically target younger, impressionable fans to manipulate and abuse. It’s only a matter of time before more and more YouTubers sexually abuse and manipulate minors in this environment. YouTube has done little to stop this influx of hatred and malice, in spite of diligently responding to corporations demanding videos be taken down for copyright reasons – allowing this dangerous environment to continue to perpetuate as the years go on.
However, we have to keep in mind that these are all allegations. Legally speaking, they’re unlikely to be anything but allegations and as a result, we can’t expect legal action to be taken without significant investigation. However, it is true that these sexual assault charges cause a significant problem, when you take into account that these same YouTubers often have a large and impressionable young audience. Their actions have serious repercussions not only for them, but for the people they influence – and that is perhaps the most troubling part of this recent trend.
