YouTube’s Biggest Scandals of 2020 Include PTSD and Makeup Artists

Like everything else in 2020 -- from post-traumatic shock due to the amount of disturbing videos, to the popularity of “Baby Shark" -- YouTube was not without controversy.

YouTube is among the go-to resources for all things streaming, from video blogs to music videos and news clips. Launched in 2005, the Google-owned platform has billions of users and countless video content.

Here are just a few of the biggest scandals that caught our attention last year:

No. 8: PSTD from YouTube

In September, a former employee working as a moderator for inappropriate and disturbing videos on YouTube filed a lawsuit in California alleging her job led her to develop depression and other symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The suit specifically alleged that YouTube, in violation of California law, did not create a safe work environment and failed to properly consider the mental health needs of employees handling graphic content.

The suit alleged the plaintiff had to watch videos of child abuse, beheadings, the skinning of animals and dead children from various school shootings.

“She has trouble sleeping and when she does sleep, she has horrific nightmares,” the lawsuit read. “She often lays awake at night trying to go to sleep, replaying videos that she has seen in her mind.”

The status of the case is unclear. Facebook last year paid $52 million to settle similar claims from its moderators.

No. 7: The Christchurch terrorist attacks

Radicalization of lone-wolf terrorists is nothing new, but a report by The New Zealand Royal Commission in December last year found that Brenton Tarrant, the Australian man who killed 51 people in Christchurch mosques in 2019, was inspired – and self-trained in the use of weapons – by videos posted on YouTube.

The commission found that Tarrant felt the video-streaming service was a “significant source of information and inspiration,” and he found right-wing channels there to support his world view.

Tarrant denied involvement with any particular group, though the commission found the content he was exposed to may have impacted his actions.

“He also spent much time accessing broadly similar material on YouTube,” the report read. “His exposure to such content may have contributed to his actions on 15 March 2019 — indeed, it is plausible to conclude that it did.”

Tarrant himself live-streamed his attacks, but on Facebook.

No. 6: Live-streamed crimes

Russian social media sensation Andrey Burim, better known as Mellstroy, live-streamed his own crime on YouTube.

Broadcast to his estimated 680,000 subscribers in October, Burim is seen violently beating 21-year-old model Alena Efremova, who sustained facial injuries in the attack.

“There is a bloody mess of iron in my mouth, blood and pieces of torn skin,” she was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying. “I am deeply distressed, my limbs are shaking, my head is splitting with any movement."

Segments of the video are still online.

No. 5: Spats among YouTube influencers

Shane Dawson has made a career of YouTube since first posting on the site in 2008. Last year, however, he found himself at the center of controversy involving other YouTubers and a celebrity family.

Dawson gained notoriety for makeup demonstrations with help from fellow YouTuber Jeffree Star, working together to sell makeup palettes through Star’s cosmetics company. Both were accused of targeting others in the makeup community, such as YouTube sensation Tati Westbrook.

Westbrook accused Star of sexual harassment and bullying others.

Dawson saw further controversy erupt when he posted a video sexualizing a poster of Willow Smith, the then-11-year-old daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith.

No. 4: Should kids be dun-na dun dah dah lovin’ it?

A study published in October in the peer-reviewed journal Pediatrics found YouTube may be promoting an unhealthy lifestyle for children.

The study looked at so-called child influencers, those used to promote food products online.

Among the 418 videos reviewed in the study, 179 of them promoted food or drinks, 90% of which were considered unhealthy.

"In fact, McDonald's accounted for the highest number (30.0%) of the branded product placements," the researchers wrote.

No. 3: An infant version of a cartilaginous fish

Uploaded way back in June 2016, “Baby Shark,” was still a thing last year. The children’s rhyme and ear-worm recorded by South Korean company Pinkfong is now arguably the most-watched video on YouTube, notching more than 7.4 billion hits as of December.

The BBC estimated that Pinkfong made more than $5.2 million from the video streams alone.

No. 2: A Cure for COVID-19

In the age of misinformation, this one is certainly deserving of the list for 2020. Last month, YouTube banned the conservative One America News Network from its platform for a week over a video claiming that there is a guaranteed cure for COVID-19.

The video was posted nearly a month before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration signed off on a vaccine for COVID-19.

"Since early in this pandemic, we've worked to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation associated with COVID-19,” read a statement from YouTube. "After careful review, we removed a video from OANN and issued a strike on the channel for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content that claims there's a guaranteed cure."

It’s not clear exactly what the video was saying beyond the existence of a cure because it’s been removed, though OANN has a history of pushing conspiracy theories and COVID-19 cures that have since been debunked.

No. 1: Fake news

With President Donald Trump spending his last weeks in office challenging the outcome of the Nov. 3 election, we’d be remiss not to include a YouTube ban on content that questioned the results.

The Google-owned video streaming platform made specific reference to many of the unsubstantiated claims used by the president to challenge the vote.

As of Dec. 9, more than a month after the election, YouTube stated that 8,000 channels have been removed for violating election-related terms of service with even more videos taken down. About 77% of the removed videos had fewer than 100 views.