Amid controversy, YouTuber Bryan Stars releases apology: "I f*cked up"

October 3, 2016

“Hey, what's up everyone. It's Bryan—the most hated person on the internet,” says scene personality Bryan Stars in an apology video, following controversy surrounding his collaborative YouTube series “My Digital Escape” (MDE).

After MDE 1.0 called it quits in May of this year, Stars planned to re-launch the channel, spurring a clash between himself and the previous MDE collaborators. On Oct. 3, Stars released an apology because he, in his words, “fucked up.”

Check it out below, along with a summary of information from the situation.

Due to fear of legal action, members of MDE 1.0 were guarded in their responses to the reboot.

Shannon Taylor was the most outspoken in her response, despite claiming that she has been threatened to be sued by Stars multiple times.

She claims that working under Stars was like “working for a factory” where she found “no enjoyment.”

“There was queerbaiting, there was hypersexualised videos… There was selling suicide,” says Taylor.

Taylor, a victim of sexual abuse, mentioned that there were videos in which she was slapped with a sex toy and says she felt very uncomfortable with the hyper-sexualized videos.

“Our audience is a bunch of 12 to 15 year old girls where they should not be exposed to this type of content,” says Taylor.

Another whistle-blower was Damon “DeeFizzy,” who was not a part of MDE, but is a well-known YouTuber who has worked with Stars in the past.

Stars interviewed DeeFizzy in 2013, which he called “the most uncomfortable experience of [his] entire life.” You can see why at the 3-minute mark of DeeFizzy’s video when Stars asks Fizzy to reenact a rape with him.

Other MDE 1.0 members, which include Johnnie Guilbert, Alex Dorame and Jeydon Wale (recently removed), posted their own videos in responses to the situation.

Kyle David Hall did not extensively comment, only tweeting, “It has no effect on me. With or without MDE 2.0 I'll still be the same person. No more MDE questions or tags please.”

Jordan Sweeto, who's in the middle of promoting his first full-length album, said on Twitter, “The MDE channel will finally be left alone and laid to rest. I'm happy to see that people were able to step up and do the right thing.”

MDE collaborators aren't the only ones who were outspoken in the situation.

The Word Alive frontman, Telle Smith, took to Twitter last week and compared Stars to Donald Trump, alluding to the controversy and saying “Idk who is worse… Trump or @BryanStars. Neither have friends. Both only care about money. Both use others.”

Idk who is worse… Trump or @BryanStars. Neither have friends. Both only care about money. Both use others.

You should be ashamed Bryan…

— TELLE (@tellesmith) September 27, 2016

Fellow YouTube personality Jarrod Alonge posted a video of his own satirical commentary on the “scandal,” stating “I have better things to do with my time,” in a two second video.