YouTuber MrBeast has hit back at criticism of his philanthropic efforts, after he was accused of "displaying his white savior complex" for building 100 new homes for families abroad.
In a video that went live on June 29, MrBeast—whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson—shared footage of himself giving away new houses to families in the Caribbean and Latin America who were shown to be living in damaged and substandard structures.
"With every single home we're building in this video, we're improving quality of life for families who don't have a safe space to call home," the social media star said. "And we spent millions of dollars just on this video building these houses."
However, his efforts in the nine-minute video—titled "I Built 100 Homes and Gave Them Away!"—was met with criticism from a faction of social media users.
One detractor wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "MrBeast is once again displaying his white savior complex while looking like a literal colonizer."
The post, which sparked a debate on the platform, has gone viral. As of press time, the post has garnered more than 4.5 million views. It was also hit with a community notes update that countered the point of view portrayed.
Read the note: "The video that they're referencing is one where MrBeast builds 100 homes for people who don't have one. Nowhere does it show him wanting colonialism. This post is rage bait."
MrBeast himself also spoke out against the criticism, writing in an X post on Sunday: "When we help people (curing 1,000 blind people, building 100 houses, 100 wells, etc.) people get mad and say I shouldn't be doing this and governments should.
"Yes, ideally a YouTuber isn't the one fixing these issues, but I'm not just gonna stand by and do nothing," he concluded.
A host of X users threw their support behind MrBeast amid the criticism. One wrote: "MrBeast could cure cancer today and people will find a way to hate."
Newsweek has contacted a representative of MrBeast via email for comment.
In his video, MrBeast and his collaborators were seen building new homes for families in Jamaica, El Salvador, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia. A number of the recipients were seen breaking down in tears as their new homes were unveiled.
In an address to his viewers at the end of the video, MrBeast said: "Shout out to you guys, because obviously if you didn't watch these videos, we wouldn't have been able to build 100 houses. And if the channel continues to grow, I hope to do 1,000 in the future."
MrBeast holds the record for the most subscribers on YouTube, with more than 290 million followers at the time of writing. According to Forbes, in 2022 he was earning $54 million a year, mostly from ads on his YouTube videos. He has also become known for giving back to his followers, often uploading videos of his charitable acts.
MrBeast's videos—many of which involve viral stunts and challenges or massive giveaways—cost millions to produce, Rolling Stone reported in 2022. One of his most popular, and most expensive, videos to produce was a real-life recreation of Netflix's Squid Game. It has over 625 million views on YouTube and cost $3.5 million.
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