YouTube Has Suspended Monetization On Shane Dawson's Channels After He Apologized For "Racism"

While Dawson had not publicly addressed this latest news, he went live on Instagram on Tuesday to address fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook's recent video accusing him of manipulating her.

YouTube has suspended monetization on all three of Shane Dawson's channels, a spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News.

Shane's main channel "Shane," which has over 22 million subscribers, his beauty channel, which has 3.7 million subscribers, and another channel, which has nearly 8.4 million subscribers, are all demonetized for an indefinite amount of time. YouTube did not respond to inquiries about how long his suspension will last.

The company's action comes after the YouTuber posted a video over the weekend apologizing for "all the racism that [he's] put on the internet." The list of offenses includes, but is not limited to, doing blackface on multiple occasions, saying the n-word, and playing Asian and Latino stereotypes in skits.

A video of Dawson pretending to masturbate to a then-11-year-old Willow Smith also resurfaced, which pissed off the Smith family.

According to the company, it can retroactively suspend an account for a creator's old content, even if their newer videos do not violate community guidelines.

When asked why action is being taken now, the spokesperson provided statements that said the company reviewed Dawson’s older videos and determined his actions warranted a corporate response.

In Dawson's lengthy apology video, which now has over 11 million views, the 31-year-old YouTuber said blackface was "something that [he] did a lot" in 2014. He apologized at the time.

"I'm sorry I added to the normalization of blackface or the normalization of saying the n-word," he said in his most recent apology video. "Me as a white person wearing a wig and playing a character and doing stereotypes and then saying the n-word is something that I should have probably lost my career for at the time."

While Dawson did not address the Willow Smith clip, he did address other comments about pedophilia he'd made.

"I swear on my life, I am not somebody who would ever talk about a child that in any way was inappropriate," he said. "That is disgusting. That is gross. It is not something I would ever do. It is something I did for shock value or because I thought it was funny."

Shane Dawson freaking over Tati’s new video on IG Live

While Dawson had not publicly addressed this latest news, he went live on Instagram on Tuesday to address fellow YouTuber Tati Westbrook's recent video. In the video, Westbrook accuses him and Jeffree Star of manipulating her into making that infamous video where she cut ties with James Charles.

"I am really sorry, James," Westbrook said in her video. "I made it as a result of all the poisonous lies that were fed to me by Shane Dawson and Jeffree Star."

Dawson promptly responded on Instagram Live, saying, "you are so manipulative," which was directed at Westbrook. He then accused her of fake-crying.

BuzzFeed News has reached out to Dawson and his reps.

Ayanna Miller contributed reporting to this story.


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