“My goal is to produce the most impressive show possible and prove that YouTubers and content creators can be successful on other platforms.” In March, YouTuber MrBeast presented his show “Beast Games,” a project in collaboration with Prime Video, Amazon’s streaming platform. Even before its premiere, the date of which has not been announced, this XXL contest, in which a thousand candidates were to compete for a prize of five million dollars, saw its image tarnished.
On Monday, September 16, five participants of the program filed a complaint in a Los Angeles court against the production company of MrBeast, but also against Amazon, for “mistreatment” during filming. According to them, the candidates were not paid adequately, did not always have a meal break, did not always receive adequate care, and operated in a toxic work environment where sexual harassment was tolerated. The plaintiffs believe that these conditions have “Health and well-being at risk” of participants.
MrBeast and Amazon’s company “Shamelessly exploited work” of the participants, according to the complaint, recalling that the budget of the series was “100 million dollars”. The value of the spectacle. “It arises directly from the physical and emotional work of the candidates, who compete in difficult conditions”the plaintiffs insist in this document.
This class action The lawsuit aims to compensate everyone who participated in the series by paying them a salary. This type of class action rarely leads to a lawsuit in the United States and is usually resolved amicably through financial agreements. Neither Amazon nor MrBeast have yet reacted to the filing of this complaint.
Accusations are piling up
With over 300 million subscribers, American MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is the most followed YouTuber in the world. His most popular video, with 652 million views, is a recreation of the hit Netflix series. Squid Gamein which participants compete to the death in a game. The YouTuber regularly features people to whom he offers money on the condition that they take on daring or extreme challenges. He is also known for his philanthropic actions, which he showcases on a secondary YouTube channel.
In recent months, MrBeast has been plagued by difficulties. He has parted ways with one of his close collaborators, Ava Kris Tyson, after she was accused of having a relationship with a minor several years ago. MrBeast is also the subject of criticism from a former employee, Dawson French, who accuses him in several videos that have racked up millions of views of being a “sociopath”.
In July, old videos of the YouTuber containing racist comments surfaced, for which he apologized. At the same time, criticism began to emerge over the treatment of participants in the “Beast Games” before the complaint was filed.. MrBeast announced to his teams in a memo in August that an internal audit of the corporate culture and an investigation into “accusations of inappropriate behavior by certain people in society”.
