The world's most popular YouTuber, Mr Beast, says he can't win.
The 24-year-old, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, revealed to his 131 million subscribers that he had funded sight-restoring cataract surgery for 1000 people across the world in a video on 28 January.
The eight-minute video, which has 74 million views to date, films the moment people are able to see clearly again. The reactions are emotional, many people are in tears, and along the way, Donaldson gives away a Tesla car and thousands of dollars.
"For them, it is the happiest thing! MrBeast is awesome!" one commentator wrote.
"Appreciate all you do to help others. You are setting a great example for the community Jimmy," said another.
In the video, Donaldson reminds viewers how debilitating blindness or even partial blindness can be. Some have lost jobs, others the ability to drive.
But the video has stirred a lot of reaction - and not all of it positive.
Why are people angry at MrBeast?
In the thumbnail for the video, titled '1,000 people see for the first time,' (although many were able to see before cataracts) the YouTube star smiles next to a shocked child who has a bandage wrapped around his head and tears streaming down his face.
A bandage of that kind was never featured in the video. Instead, smaller bandages covered the eyes of the patients.
At one point in the video, Donaldson asks "so you can't read anything on the TV?" which reads "YOU JUST WON $10,000". "He won't know he won 10 grand until after his surgery," he adds, smiling at the camera.
The YouTube star is facing a list of criticisms for the video with many accusing him of creating a channel based on "poverty porn."
Reacting to his channel users have said: "He makes his ludicrous fortune by making poverty porn. If he wasn't milking poor people for content, he wouldn't be able to cure 1000 people's blindness.
"It shows we're a broken society, but at least Mr.Beast is doing something good with it even if it feels disgusting."
"It’s no different than filming yourself giving food to homeless folks, just more commercialized and a friendlier face," another person said in a tweet.
MrBeast responds to the criticism
Three days after the video was posted, Donaldson responded to the criticism online.
"Twitter - Rich people should help others with their money. Me - Okay, I'll use my money to help people and I promise to give away all my money before I die. Every single penny. Twitter - MrBeast bad," the tweet read.
But other users said it felt "shady" to have a whole channel dedicated to that type of content.
"I don't mind if people post their charitable work a few times but his whole brand based on that?" they said on Twitter.
The Fred Hollows Foundation, an Australian non-profit aid organisation working to prevent blindness and restore sight, said it welcomed the increased attention to the cause.
"The Fred Hollows Foundation is heartened to see greater awareness raised of avoidable blindness, particularly when 9 out of 10 people who are blind don't need to be," a spokesperson told The Feed in a statement.
Mr Beast built his profile on expensive stunts
This kind of video is a familiar tale for Donaldson, who many credit with pioneering a genre of YouTube videos that centres on expensive stunts.
In his first videos, posted in 2012, Donaldson dabbled in filming his gaming and made videos predicting the wealth of other YouTubers. In 2017, a viral video of him counting to 100,000 saw him change up his content.
In recent years he's created many videos asking people to compete for money. In one viral video, he staged his own 'Squid Games', basing the video off the award-winning Korean show which saw people battle in a bid to free themselves of debt.
The cash prize in these videos often begins at six figures.
In 2021, Donaldson launched a separate YouTube channel, which has over 11 million subscribers, where all money would be sent to his food bank.
Responding to his latest video, others landed somewhere in between, saying the video was tarnished by the reminder that the US healthcare system couldn't accommodate the surgery and people instead had to rely on the pocket of a YouTube star.
"It's worth considering the societal conditions that created the need for these stories in the first place," one person said in a video responding to the backlash.
