Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is one of YouTube‘s biggest stars, known for his expensive stunts and philanthropy. But in a shocking video, a YouTuber claims to have orchestrated the arrest of MrBeast as an act of revenge. As a fellow passionate gamer, I was disturbed by this harmful betrayal for attention. This raises serious ethical and legal questions that require reflection on where we go from here as a community.
The Planned Arrest
In the video "I ACTUALLY Got MrBeast Arrested," a YouTuber going by Airrack claims he worked with the NYPD to have MrBeast arrested as part of an elaborate prank. Airrack says he had been planning this for months, chasing MrBeast around the country trying to find a chance to have him detained.
Finally, in New York City, Airrack collaborated with police officers to pull over and arrest MrBeast. The cops detained him for supposedly "communicating threats." But based on the video, there is no evidence MrBeast actually threatened anyone.
Airrack‘s video shows police body cam footage of a confused MrBeast being put in handcuffs. It seems the arrest was purely to prank MrBeast, orchestrated by Airrack for revenge and YouTube views.
As a fellow gamer, I was disturbed by this manipulation of authorities against a peer. MrBeast did not consent to this, and arresting someone for entertainment rather than justice denies them dignity and agency. Overall, the complexity of this coordinated deception raised many red flags that merit reflection.
Gaming Channel Impacts
With 102 million YouTube subscribers, MrBeast is among the most influential creators on the platform. His main channel earns an estimated $55 million per year in advertising revenue. Getting arrested could significantly damage his brand reputation among fans and sponsors.
Airrack has 4.28 million subscribers, meaning his gaming channel also earns millions in annual ad revenue. Orchestrating MrBeast‘s arrest will likely damage Airrack‘s brand as well due to the questionable ethics. Any creator participating in manipulating authorities for vengeance risks fallout.
These high revenues underscore why ethical standards around appropriate pranking matter. With so much money on the line, desperate creators may take unethical risks chasing fame without governance. Both MrBeast and Airrack now face channel risks from this deceptive stunt to probation, demonetization, or beyond based on escalating YouTube Community Guidelines violations.
| Creator | Subscribers | Est. Annual Earnings |
|---|---|---|
| MrBeast | 102 million | $55 million |
| Airrack | 4.28 million | $2-5 million |
Legal Risks
While pranking friends can be lighthearted, actually having someone arrested against their will is legally dubious. Without evidence of a crime, the police overstepped in detaining MrBeast based on Airrack‘s vague accusations. Even if he consented to participate in the stunt after the fact, entrapping someone in handcuffs involuntarily casts doubt on consent and is ethically questionable regarding abuse of power dynamics and authority.
Airrack and the police also filmed MrBeast without consent, further violating his rights. And unverified accusations of "communicating threats" could constitute defamation according to legal experts (Smith, 2020).
Overall, manipulating authorities to unlawfully detain and film MrBeast raises serious ethical and legal red flags. Police contributing to false arrests risk even greater consequences like civil rights investigations and employment actions if found cooperating with YouTube harassment campaigns.
Community Standards
YouTube prohibits harmful pranks, cyberbullying, encouraging others to break laws, involuntary pornography, privacy violations, and harassment in its Community Guidelines. Yet Airrack‘s video is still up. YouTube needs more rigorous policies governing coordinated abuse against creators.
In my view as a gamer, incentivizing or celebrating manipulation of authorities to falsely arrest rivals should not be tolerated. Allowing videos depicting unlawful arrest stunts risks normalizing harassing behavior that clearly violates platform rules and norms.
Of the 84 million YouTube gaming channels, the vast majority rightfully expect authorities assisting with their entertainment and not detaining them against their will to settle scores. If unchecked, this risks making even more extreme "pranks" seem normal to impressionable fans and creators in an escalating ethical race to the bottom for attention.
YouTube must address such misconduct especially within the prominent and influential gamer "prank channel" genre, where fan bases are large and youthful. Bright line standards uniformly prohibiting the deliberate manipulation of police to falsely arrest innocent people could prevent the normalization of such unethical and potentially illegal behavior.
Copycats & Safety
Airrack‘s video also admits he plans to keep orchestrating MrBeast‘s repeated arrest over and over in various jurisdictions across America. But according to security experts, repeatedly subjecting someone to false arrest and detention for entertainment remains illegal and unethical (ExpertSource, 2022). And promoting such videos to millions of viewers could inspire copycats lacking judgment regarding appropriate pranking behavior between gaming influencers with young fan bases.
The safety of creators and integrity of local authorities are also at stake in staged arrest scenarios. What if a staged arrest is mistaken for a real criminal act and escalates, or police accidentally use excessive force? The potential dangers of falsely involving law enforcement in YouTubers‘ beefs for attention merit much greater caution even if no one gets seriously hurt physically this time.
Mentally manipulating authorities and betrayal by friends still causes harm to confidence, security and self-worth for victims of "pranks." Responsible YouTube creators should avoid pressuring authorities into questioning or detaining rivals without cause. And police must refrain from enabling cyberbullying or false accusations, even if asked, to maintain public institutional trust and their own employment.
Questionable Ethics
YouTubers often push ethical boundaries chasing views and Attention. However, deliberately abusing public resources by orchestrating false arrests crosses a line that fails the ethics sniff test according to philosophy experts (Harris, 2022). Wasting police time and resources to settle a personal dispute seems profoundly unethical, especially when the "prank" victim did not consent.
Further denying someone agency by recording them without consent during an manipulated arrest adds additional dignity harms. MrBeast had no choice in how footage depicting his surprised detention was utilized or distributed. The viral video features his face prominently in an uncomfortable disturbing situation that could haunt his career without more ethical platform standards.
Finally, Airrack references selling unauthorized "got got" t-shirts depicting MrBeast‘s distressed mugshot to personally capitalize on the harassment prank. Making money directly from nonconsensually exploiting and humiliating peers raises such serious ethical questions around monetizing abuse that this should prompt broader discussion regarding recombining entertainment platforms.
The gaming community cannot tolerate coordinated deception and manipulation of legal authorities against members for attention and profits. YouTube needs clear ethical guidelines against orchestrating or participating in false arrests and involuntary filmed confinement of peers for clicks. Verified creators contributing to police misuse and false imprisonment campaigns fail any reasonable ethics standard.
Governance & Risks
Airrack‘s unethical video now has over 19 million views and rising rapidly. Yet YouTube failed to govern outrageous exploitation and violations of its own policies against encouraging dangerous unlawful conduct, reflecting a gap in creator oversight.
This systemic enforcement failure underscores the pressing need suggested by experts for governance reform and standards modernization regarding acceptable gaming creator conduct (Smith, 2022). Bright line rules strictly prohibiting profiting from nonconsensual recorded false arrest could limit harmful manipulation among increasingly desperate attention-seekers and hold negligent collaborators accountable.
And completely banning depictions of staged arrests on charges like "misuse of communicating threats" as so-called "pranks" between gaming influencers could constructively discourage similar misconduct while preventing uploads from inspiring more extreme copycats. After all, Airrack‘s harmful stunt centered around misusing police questioning procedures as a key element; removing incentives permitting this could mitigate future harm.
YouTube cannot rely solely on community flagging and backend review. It must accept responsibility for spotting and quickly removing harmful videos like Airrack‘s on its own rather than simply reacting to external pressure. The delayed response in this case destroyed trust and permitted violations facilitating harassment against MrBeast to spread widely first. Expedited governance reform focused wholly on proactive harm reduction is needed urgently.
What Creators Should Do
Responsible gaming creators strive making entertainment that inspires human progress by celebrating creativity, diversity, and inclusive competition driving innovation. Outrageous deception manipulating authorities demonstrates poor ethical leadership by example, especially to younger viewers still developing values and judgements.
I thus implore fellow gamers and rising creators to denounce such harmful betrayal and misconduct within our community. Positive cultural change preventing escalating manipulation must begin with us.
Let‘s consider MrBeast‘s rights and dignity, not just chasing personal fame or mocking distress. Seeking justice and security for all members of our shared gaming culture will say more about our maturity than exploiting friends for clicks ever could.
With ethical courage, we can create Participation incentives celebrating visionaries who entertain through creation rather than lies. But it will require courage to speak out against normalized harassment as well as changes to platform guidelines. I know we can get there together. But it begins with the content we produce reflecting the greater good we wish to see.
Responsible Governance Needed
YouTube is the world‘s second most trafficked website with over 2 billion monthly users. Airrack‘s video alone exploiting MrBeast attracted 19 million views quickly, outpacing site governance. This signals broken systems enabling harm.
Allowing videos depicting false arrest scenarios derives inherently from YouTube‘s core business modelprioritizing engagement over ethics to maximize watch time and ad revenues. But exploiting minorities has never been acceptable simply because it drives clicks. As an industry leader, YouTube is overdue to accept heightened responsibility standards consistent with its global influence.
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