The MrBeast YouTube channel has recently become the most subscribed channel on YouTube, The MrBeast team creates many videos ranging from challenges to philanthropy, but has also recently been at the center of controversy. According to videos made by former MrBeast employee DogPack 404, the MrBeast channel employs many unethical practices, including illegal lotteries targeted towards children, marketing unhealthy food products, and exploiting users for profit.
While some argue that some of these issues may have been accidental, MrBeast’s overall brand targets naive children who are fooled into buying his unsatisfactor y products without knowing what happens behind the scenes.
What are the actions hidden behind the MrBeast brand? MrBeast hid information about his chocolate company Feastables, which he launched on Jan. 29th, 2022. MrBeast ’s team first marketed Feastables as child and slave-free on their website, but the webpage, along with all mention of child labor on the website, has recently been removed.
Some may thin k that his website’s removal of child labor information could be a mistake, as MrBeast specifically partnered with Rainforest Alliance, a company know n not to use child labor in any of their products. How- ever, he never used the Rainforest Alli- ance logo on any of his products and doesn’t mention where he outsources ingredients from, defeating the purpose of partnering with them.
Since he never used this Rain- forest Alliance logo, it is very possible that he intended to al- ways upscale using child labor, as a logo suddenly disappearing from a product would raise sus- picions.
It is also important to note that many chocolate competitors such as Hershey’s or Ghirardelli are known to use child labor according to slavef reechocolate.org , a website that lists slave-free chocolate companies. Since having slave-free chocolateproduction is a large marketing advantage over competi- tors, it doesn’t make sense for MrBeast not to mention their slave-free practices.
As confirmation of the chi ld labor a l legations, slavefreechocolate.org re- moved Feastables from their slave-free companies list.
MrBea st ’s a lleged use of child labor ref lects his greedy endeavors; he has run the company before without child labor, but now uses child labor to benefit monetarily. Although many chocolate brands employ children in factories, Feastables’ alleged employment of child labor is especially repulsive because MrBeast ’s brand is built on philanthropy. In almost all of his videos, he has given away money, painting himself as a generous man.
MrBeast even runs and funds many charities such as Team- Seas or TeamTrees to further his image of a giving individual, so shamelessly hiding his slav- ery policies while broadcasting this image is truly despicable.
I think that if MrBeast is self- ish enough to use defenseless children for more money, he certainly doesn’t care about his viewers, and just sees them as another way to expand his You-Tube empire. Ultimately, Mr- Beast’s use of child labor while running a YouTube channel promoted towards children is very disingenuous and should discourage any fan from buying Feastables or engaging with Mr- Beast content.
Overall, I cannot agree with MrBeast’s alleged use of child labor because it reflects a dis- regard for children – the most vulnerable population. Since MrBeast has yet to respond to many of these allegations, time will tell to see how he defends his actions and how he plans to right his wrongs.