YouTube has temporarily demonetized James Charles’s channel, weeks after the beauty influencer posted a video on the platform in which he admitted having exchanged sexual messages with two underage boys.
The controversial and wildly popular makeup guru has been temporarily removed from the platform’s Partnership Program, which allows YouTubers to make money from their content.
A YouTube spokesperson said that the platform applied the company’s creator responsibility policy, the BBC reported.
“If we see that a creator’s on- and/or off-platform behavior harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem, we may take action to protect the community,” the policy states.
The company didn’t say how long the channel would be demonetized for.
Charles is a social media phenomenon with more than 25.5 million YouTube subscribers. The 21-year-old makeup celebrity from Bethlehem, New York, became the first male spokesperson for CoverGirl in 2016.
Since he started vlogging in 2015, Charles built a massively successful social media empire by posting video tutorials teaching his devoted fans how to achieve glitter, highlights and contour perfection, among other makeup techniques.
On April 1, an unusually somber Charles posted a video on the platform addressing allegations that he was “grooming” underage boys.
“Today’s video is going to be from the heart, and I’m going to focus on what happened, the conclusions that I’ve come to, and most importantly, holding myself accountable for my own actions,” he said.
In the video he admitted to two incidents where he had become aware that the person with whom he was exchanging messages was underage.
“I was being reckless,” he said, after apologizing. “These conversations should have never happened.”
On Friday, makeup brand Morphe announced it was parting ways with the YouTuber.
“In light of the recent allegations against James Charles, Morphe and James have agreed to end our business relationship and wind down sales of the Morphe x James Charles product offering,” the company said on Twitter.
On that same day, Charles said in a statement that “many other people have come forward with a series of misleading stories and false allegations” after his mea culpa video.
“My legal team has begun taking action against those that have spread misinformation and/or created completely fake stories, as this has gone too far,” he added in a statement shared on Twitter.
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