MrBeast’s latest charity video divides Internet users. Some accuse the American YouTuber of staging his good charitable deeds to gain views.
There’s this family whose house was destroyed by a flooded river in Jamaica. This Colombian couple with a toddler whose house collapsed due to a storm. Or a mother whose roof was leaking. These three families were lucky enough to cross paths with YouTuber MrBeast.
In his video published on June 29, Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, set himself a challenge: to build 100 houses for families in need. A ten-minute clip produced in partnership with Food for the Poor, an association that provides food, medicine and shelter to people in Latin America.
To a slightly tearful soundtrack, the videographer then distributes houses to families in Jamaica and Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. All while filming the thanks of the residents moved to tears. With smiles on their faces, a group of children shout to the camera “Thank you MrBeast!”
“With each of the houses built in this video, we improve the quality of life of families who do not have a place they can call home,” says MrBeast.
“We spent millions of dollars just for this video. Because here in Jamaica, more than 500,000 people live in unsanitary and potentially fatal conditions,” he continues.
Charity business
In addition to funding these homes, MrBeast is donating a soccer field and sports equipment to children in Jamaica, as well as motorcycles to Colombians. The video ends with images of a family crying, happy to finally have a roof over their heads.
A real audience success. In 48 hours, the video has more than 48 million views. And, if many Internet users congratulated the YouTuber for his good deed, the YouTuber received many negative reactions on X, formerly Twitter.
Indeed, some users have accused the videographer of staging his spectacular charitable actions to attract views and therefore increase his income. “People are not upset because he helps. But they are uncomfortable because he monetizes and highlights this content,” writes one user.
“I’m not against MrBeast. But promoting your career by doing charitable work is weird,” says another.
“It’s not your job to help these people,” one user complained, expressing concern about the amateurism displayed by the videographer. Indeed, some Internet users are concerned about the way the homes were built.
Several controversies on the counter
“Most of the houses were built on shoddy pillars. Does anyone think this could be dangerous? I’m grateful to MrBeast for charity, but building 100 houses as fast as possible makes me feel like the quality will be poor,” we can read on Reddit.
Faced with the controversy, MrBeast spoke out on X. “When we help people (healing 1,000 blind people, building 100 houses, 100 wells…), people get angry and say that I shouldn’t do this and that governments should do it. Yes, ideally, it’s not a YouTuber who solves these problems, but I’m not going to sit back and do nothing,” he explains.
This is not the first time that the YouTuber has created controversy with “charity” videos. Last October, his video “1,000 blind people see for the first time“, unleashed the wrath of Internet users. Many had already accused him of staging philanthropy to garner views.
