The clip, which originally came out four years ago, comes from Shane's own podcast, Shane And Friends. Photo / Getty Images
The clip, which originally came out four years ago, comes from Shane's own podcast, Shane And Friends. Photo / Getty Images
Ever since YouTube personality Logan Paul was slammed for uploading footage of a dead body in Japan's suicide forest, the popular video platform has descended into chaos.
The latest to get caught up in the madness is Shane Dawson, one of the streaming site's biggest stars.
Dawson, known as one of the original "YouTubers" who started posting video content long before people could get paid for having channels, was forced to deny allegations he was a paedophile.
i’m not a pedophile. i can’t believe i even have to say that. it literally feels like i’m in a nightmare. https://t.co/i0mo11xNg3
The original allegations came from a YouTube channel called PopBlast which uploaded a video yesterday with the title: Shane Dawson is a paedophile, here's the proof.
The video featured edited snippets of a podcast the now-29-year-old Dawson did six years ago, joking about paedophilia and calling naked babies "sexy".
One snippet featured Dawson saying "here's my justification for paedophilia" before flashing a sentence across the video, "When is paedophilia ever justified?"
The video also claims Dawson invited a 13-year-old girl to come over to his house and featured snippets of a video he filmed with a 9-year-old boy with Dawson "insisting" he hold his hand.
It also had Dawson referring to a child Instagrammer who told the YouTuber she had 125,000 followers.
"First of all, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this but she's, like, sexy," he says in the video.
However, what the video didn't include was numerous, extremely important facts.
The 13-year-old girl who had come over to Dawson's house had visited with her entire family.
The 9-year-old boy was a paid actor whose mum was on set but just off camera all day.
His co-anchor, meanwhile, begged him to stop and said they had discussed the matter before, while telling Shane he could get arrested. Photo / Getty Images
The podcast featuring Dawson "joking" about paedophilia began with the YouTuber saying "First of all, just let me say touching children or having sex with children or anything of that nature is terrible and you should not do it."
And when Dawson was searching for naked babies, he really said, "So I typed in naked baby and first of all I don't understand why anybody would be turned on by that but ... they were sexy ... I'm kidding, I'm kidding."
Immediately after the PopBlast video was released, Dawson took to YouTube to respond, admitting he used to have "sh**ty" humour and apologised.
"I'm going to apologise first," Dawson said. "I am sorry that I used to make really sh**ty f***ing jokes. I am sorry that I was so f***ing, like, insecure and playing this character who is crazy and will say anything and tries to make people laugh by shocking them.
"That was my thing and that was what I did on YouTube. I feel like a lot of people now don't know that."
Dawson's 15-minute apology and explanation was generally accepted as genuine.
PopBlast eventually deleted the video, right after tweaking the title to I think Shane Dawson is a paedophile, and then went on a bizarre posting spree.
The now-deleted channel, which had almost 700,000 subscribers before it was taken down, posted something in code which translated to: "They made me do it".
And then, the most confusing and potentially damaging part of the whole story came with PopBlast's next video.
Titled Receipts, the channel posted a screenshot of a PayPal account appearing to show a man named Jeffrey Oscar Levin transferring them US$6500 (NZ$8900).
The video from PopBlast titled Receipts. Photo / YouTube
Jeffrey Levin is the manager of Logan Paul — the 22-year-old who was punished by YouTube yesterday for posting the now-infamous suicide video.
Conspiracy theorists have gone rampant since the Receipts video claiming Paul's manager created the channel or even paid the person behind PopBlast to slander Dawson.
Specifically, they believe that putting heat on Dawson, one of the only YouTubers as big as Paul, might take the heat off him.
The 22-year-old hasn't had the easiest run since his New Year's Day video, copping criticism from YouTubers, celebrities and the mainstream media, but even Dawson thinks the plan to drag him down instead of Paul seems a little far-fetched.
i genuinely think someone was trying to make a conspiracy theory about me in real time. uploading clues, hints, etc. i don’t believe logan’s people had anything to do with it. it seems almost scripted. it’s all very fascinating. gotta love the internet! https://t.co/4deWoZm0ib
