The MrBeast scandal: when trans ideology trumps #MeToo

What happens when the immovable object of #MeToo meets the unstoppable force of the trans movement? This is the question posed by the recent drama surrounding trans YouTuber Ava Kris Tyson.

A biological male, he was known as Chris Tyson until he began transitioning last year. He is best known for his work with fellow YouTuber ‘MrBeast’ (real name Jimmy Donaldson). Tyson used to regularly appear as a co-host on the MrBeast YouTube channel, which has over 300million subscribers – making it the most followed channel on the platform.

Last week, it was alleged that Tyson, now aged 28, had ‘groomed’ a 13-year-old boy when he was 20. It was claimed that incriminating messages showed Tyson being sexually inappropriate towards a minor. Tyson promptly announced that he would ‘permanently step away from all things MrBeast and social media to focus on my family and mental health’. Donaldson also said he would be hiring a third-party investigator to look into the allegations.

The situation became complicated, however, when the supposed victim, who goes by ‘Lava’ on X, came forward to tell the internet that Tyson had never actually groomed him. Lava wrote that he did not consider himself a ‘victim’ and that ‘nothing bad happened between me and Kris’. ‘People are creating lies around my name’, he said.

Sure enough, the messages were then leaked and all they revealed was that everyone involved had a crude and juvenile sense of humour. The conversations, which took place primarily in a group Discord chat, were certainly offensive and arguably inappropriate between an adult and a teen. But they did not offer evidence of any attempted ‘grooming’.

Perhaps what is most unusual about this case, however, has been the reaction to it. By now, we have become all too used to seeing people cancelled at the first whiff of vaguely problematic behaviour. And yet, on this occasion, the usually ferocious internet held off. For once, social-media users seemed to actually want some evidence of wrongdoing before rushing to judgement. More than that, many dismissed the allegations out of hand, claiming they were motivated purely by transphobia.

When reporting on Tyson’s stepping down from MrBeast, even news outlets jumped to blame the allegations on transphobia or skirted over them entirely. In a video posted on TikTok last week, Pink News reported that Tyson had quit the YouTube channel over ‘transphobic attacks’. Rolling Stone published an article with the headline, ‘Ava Kris Tyson steps away from “all things MrBeast” amid transphobic attacks’. (This was later changed to ‘MrBeast launches independent investigation amid Ava Kris Tyson allegations’.) Similarly, Forbes ran a piece explaining that Tyson’s decision to ‘step out of the spotlight comes after an onslaught of transphobic attacks’. An earlier version of the article even explicitly claimed that he had quit due to ‘unsubstantiated allegations of grooming minor fans and a series of transphobic attacks’. The unmistakable implication of all this is that the allegations – the cause of Tyson’s departure – were part of a transphobic attack.

Needless to say, it is not ‘transphobic’ to be concerned about a case of potential child grooming. The allegations ultimately came to nothing and were clearly based on a misunderstanding, but they were not invented from cloth as part of some transphobic smear campaign.

The internet has clearly been far more forgiving towards Tyson than it normally is to men accused of sexual harassment – no doubt because of his transgender identity. While the Twitter hordes are giving Tyson the benefit of the doubt, fellow YouTuber Cody Ko is facing cancellation, after another creator claimed to have slept with him when she was 17 and he was 25. Despite those allegations currently being nothing more than allegations, Ko has had the dubious honour of being crowned the internet villain of the week. He has been forced to temporarily step back from the media brand he co-founded.

Of course, it’s no bad thing that people are hesitating before rushing to accuse Tyson of something as serious as child grooming. Rumours or allegations should never be treated as proof of guilt. But we need to extend this treatment to everyone, not just to those who happen to belong to an identity group that is favoured by the woke. Selective outrage and double standards are no substitutes for due process and blind justice.

Lauren Smith is a staff writer at spiked.