Allegations recently surfaced claiming that YouTuber Shane Dawson is a pedophile.
On January 10th, Pop Blast uploaded a video to YouTube originally titled “shane dawson is a pedophile. here’s the proof.”
The video, whose title was later changed to “i think shane dawson is a pedophile. here is my proof.”, had edited clips together from Dawson’s podcast, Shane and Friends, from four years ago in which Dawson remarks that an Instagram famous child is “sexy.” He goes on to say that “people have foot fetishes, people have fetishes about… everything … so why is it when somebody looks at naked babies on Google and jerks off to it they can get arrested?” Dawson also admits that he himself has googled “naked babies.”
Dawson was quick to refute his behaviour as jokes on Twitter.
He also made a 14 minute long video in response to the allegations. Dawson claims that Pop Blast’s video takes his podcast out of context, stating: “I, Shane Yaw — my real name — go on record saying ‘I am not a fucking pedophile.’” Dawson goes on to apologize for the insensitive jokes and attributes his comments as shock humour, but maintains the fact that he is not a pedophile.
Dawson is well known for his conspiracy videos, some videos focusing on condemning and highlighting various theories of pedophilia in Hollywood. He has recently stated that he wants to dive more into these dark theories in 2018.
Although some Twitter users started circulating the hashtag #ShaneDawsonIsOverParty, Dawson’s fans and fellow YouTubers quickly came to his defence with #IStandWithShane, pointing out that the same account that alleged Dawson is a pedophile has posted videos in the past sexualizing young influencers like fifteen-year-old Jacob Sartorius. These videos used titles such as “Jacob Sartorius Most SEXUAL Performance EVER!!! (Shocking)” and “Jacob Sartorius Sexiest & Grinding Moments” which use topless photos of the underage YouTuber in the thumbnails.
After the outrage of Pop Blast’s first video, the account uploaded a 34 second video titled “they made me do it.” The video shows what seems to be an email telling Pop Blast to make a video exposing Dawson. The video also has audio of someone reading out the numbers “104 111 108 108 121 119 111 111 100,” which viewers were quick to decode as ASCII for “Hollywood.” The video was deleted shortly after upload.
Screencap of “they made me do it.”
Later, Pop Blast posted another 34 second video entitled “receipts.” which allegedly shows a PayPal transaction from Jeffrey Oscar Levin for $6,500. Levin is a known talent agent from Los Angeles associated with network collectives such as Studio71 and AwesomenessTV. Levin is also the manager of massive YouTube creator Logan Paul, who recently had his own controversy.
Similar to Pop Blast’s previous video, “receipts.” includes an audio recording of the numbers 116 104 101 121 032 097 114 101 032 100 105 115 116 114 097 099 116 105 110 103 032 121 111 117, this time translating to “they are distracting you.” This video has since been deleted as well.
Screencap of “receipts.”
Fans are now theorizing that Pop Blast was paid by Levin to expose Dawson as a way to distract from Paul’s recent controversy. Viewers are also claiming Pop Blast is a seventeen-year-old boy from the United Kingdom.
After deleting the aforementioned videos, Pop Blast released a third video, “final message.” This video shows more ASCII code which translates to “I’m returning the money. It was not worth it. I’m sorry.” This video was also deleted shortly after upload.
Screencap of “final message.”
The video was followed another titled “I’m sorry, Shane Dawson.” in which a woman films a baby apologizing to Dawson. The off-screen woman tells the baby to say sorry to Shane, and to say “we know you’re not a pedophile.” The woman in the video is allegedly named Casey Risner, who claims her video had been re-uploaded by Pop Blast. Risner commented on the video “FUCKING DELETE IT PLEASE! THIS IS MY VIDEO! I didn’t even think anyone would see it!!!!!”. The video was eventually deleted.
Pop Blast has gone on to post several more strange videos, since the Dawson controversy.
In addition to the three deleted cryptic ASCII videos before, Pop Blast also deleted their original video claiming Dawson was a pedophile.
The YouTube account Pop Blast was later terminated due to violations of Terms & Service.
What do you think? Do you believe the conspiracies? Or is it a viral hoax? Let us know in the comments below!
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