The French YouTube scene has been rocked in recent days by a sexual abuse scandal, after the most subscribed French gaming YouTuber claimed some popular names were using their fame to have sex with young fans.
YouTuber ‘Squeezie’, who has over 11 million subscribers, posted on Twitter on August 6: ‘YouTubers who take advantage of the psychological vulnerability of young subscribers to get sex we see you’.
This sparked outrage and quickly spread on social media, with the hashtag #BalanceTonYoutubeur (denounce/snitch/accuse your YouTuber).
Squeezie did not name any names in his accusations, saying he did not want to be ‘hasty’, but following his Tweets, an investigation was published by Paris Newspaper Le Parisien.
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On Wednesday August 8, Le Parisien published their findings of an investigation they say started even before the statements of Squeezie, in which they have collected the testimony of some of the girls who claim to be victims of harassment by their favorite YouTuber.
Four YouTubers are put forward by Le Parisien: Wass Freestyle, 30, Anthox Colaboy, 29, Math Podcast, 21, and ‘From Human To God’, 29. Each of them is accused of making inappropriate advances toward at least one of their fans.
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The testimonies collected by Le Parisien come from girls aged 14 to 16 at the time of the events. They all say they have evidence of being approached by one of these YouTubers (with the exception of ‘From Human To God’), either in real life or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
With knowledge of their age, The YouTubers would then start making advances to them, sometimes asking for photos of their breasts or asking them outright if they could take them home.
The Parisian claims to have tried to contact all of these YouTubers but none of have responded to their requests. But of the four accused, one of them ‘From Human to God’, took to Twitter to defend himself against these accusations and deny that he was contacted by the newspaper.
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It should be noted, that ‘From Human to God’ is the only YouTuber for which Le Parisien provides no evidence of the contact he supposedly had with the alleged fan who gave them his testimony.
The French legal system formally recognizes the presumption of innocence and that someone is only guilty once condemned in a court of law. To accuse someone of an offense or crime that he or she did not commit is a defamation which, if made in public, can result in a fine of €12,000.
