Oladeji ‘Deji’ Olatunji has come under fire from Pierce ‘Kavos’ Kavanagh and the wider YouTube community for allegedly botting his way to 10 million YouTube subscribers. However, he has defended himself, saying that even he knows it “doesn’t add up.”
Deji’s 10 million subscriber celebration was meant to be something special for the long-time YouTuber. Breaching into eight figures is a milestone only a handful of YouTubers have achieved before him.
However, it’s been marred with controversy. First, he reportedly faked an illness and delayed his 10 million subscriber special, which led to the YouTuber’s subscriber count falling back under. Now, allegations have arisen that he actually botted his way to the milestone in the first place.
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British YouTuber Kavos, who boasts over 1 million subscribers himself, called out Deji’s “unusual” SocialBlade stats. He had stalled out at around 9.95 million subscribers, but over the course of five days, went up by 10,000 a day to break 10 million. This was all without a major change in his daily view stats.
His suspicions were ‘confirmed’ when a company by the name of FreewaySocial stepped forward, saying that Deji allegedly paid them $2,000 to purchase 50,000 YouTube subscribers. The PayPal receipts and orders were in the YouTuber’s name, while email addresses attached to the account were reportedly connected to his parents.
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The reason Thomas, the owner of FreewaySocial, released the information publicly was because Deji allegedly submitted a PayPal chargeback after dropping back below 10 million subscribers.
“Deji started losing YouTube subscribers right after reaching the 10 million mark, and he thought that they were [botted] subscribers that were dropped,” he said. “I kept explaining to him that these were his own subscribers that dropped, but he wasn’t convinced.”
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Buying YouTube subscribers is against YouTube’s “Fake Engagement Policy,” which prohibits content creators from “artificially increasing the number of views, likes, comments or other metrics.”
“This is against YouTube terms of service,” Kavos added. “This is so against the rules. Deji’s channel might get terminated after this. It’s all Deji’s undoing as well. No one can ever trust [him] again.”
Deji has denied all allegations, asking other creators to stop creating drama and “leave [him] alone,” as well as threatening FreewaySocial with legal action.
“I’ve never heard of [FreewaySocial] ever,” he said in a statement on May 17. “He leaked an IP address claiming it was mine, but it’s not. I don’t owe you any money. I don’t know who the f**k you are. If you want to go legal with this, I’m 100% down.”
“They always somehow find a way to link my brother [KSI] into this, and it’s just so f**king annoying. I have no knowledge of any of this. This is so bizarre. I just want to be left alone,” the online star continued.
YouTube is yet to take action or issue a statement, but we will update you if they do. As of publishing, Deji’s now-9.93 million subscriber account is still active on the video-hosting platform.
