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MrBeast is called the internet's nicest man - now he faces 54-page lawsuit

By primenewsghana
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Half a billion fans, a multi-million dollar personal fortune and a global business empire.

It would take a lot to dethrone YouTube's biggest influencer Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast. But a 54-page court document could be his toughest test yet.

Five female contestants on upcoming Prime Video show Beast Games are launching legal action against his production company MrB2024 and Amazon in Los Angeles.

Billed as the largest ever reality competition series, 1,000 contestants are set to compete for a $5m (£3.7m) prize when the show airs - or if it airs. The lawsuit has plunged the show into crisis.

Among many redacted pages, the legal document includes allegations that they "particularly and collectively suffered" in an environment that "systematically fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism".

It cuts to the core of MrBeast's image as one of the nicest guys on the internet.

I flicked through the document, which includes suggestions that participants were "underfed and overtired". Meals were provided "sporadically and sparsely" which "endangered the health and welfare" of the contestants, it is claimed.

In one section where almost all of the claims are redacted from public view, it says the defendants "created, permitted to exist, and fostered a culture and pattern and practice of sexual harassment including in the form of a hostile work environment".

Back in August, the New York Times spoke to more than a dozen of the (yet unreleased) show's participants, and reported there were "several hospitalisations" on the set, with one person telling the paper they had gone over 20 hours without being fed.

Contestants also alleged they had not received their medication on time.

The BBC has approached MrBeast and Amazon - he has not yet publicly commented.

So will these latest allegations hurt the king of YouTube's popularity?


BBC