YouTuber and makeup sensation “James Charles” came down hard at trolls who posted their direct messages with him as a way to make a profit from the past drama surrounding the social media star.
In summer 2019, Charles was publicly bashed by mentor and fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook. He alleged that the young beauty guru was using his popularity as a way to maneuver the sexuality of straight men.
Although he ridiculed Tati’s claims in a subsequent video and regained his 16 million subscribers, Charles continues to suffer from similar allegations, which have now spread to popular short-form video platform TikTok.
The YouTube sensation replied to a tweet of a TikTok video that succeeded the story of a self-proclaimed 17-year-old straight boy, who had entered Charles’ “TikTok Bachelor” contest as a “joke.”
The boy went ahead to show that the YouTuber had contacted him as part of the contest and that he had even go along with the “joke” — but appeared to be scandalized and baffled by his approach, captioning the video, “what do I do now…”
Needless to say, Charles was unhappy with the video, which he labeled “queerbaiting and pathetic.”
“This happens weekly at this point,” he wrote. “Some guy slides in my DMs or matches with me claiming they’re interested, we talk for a few days, and once they have enough recorded content for a TikTok or a Tweet, they post it and claim they’re straight. It’s queerbaiting and it’s pathetic.”
Not only this, the YouTuber alleged that this matter has been happening since before his drama with Westbrook last year, and makes his dating life very much “difficult and confusing.”