I Worked For MrBeast, He's A Fraud
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN mentions it in MrBeast threads as the source of allegations, often in a critical or skeptical context, not as a recommendation.
What it is
A 54-minute video by a former MrBeast worker alleging that MrBeast's operation is fraudulent, including claims that some contests are staged or manipulated.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2024 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Critical everforward · 2024-08 · on “The YouTube like button glows when you say "smash that like button" [video]”
[this video] That’s the original video that kicked it off. It’s pretty mundane as far as internet controversy goes. The lotteries were run poorly and as such were probably illegal, not exactly uncommon on YouTube. The show largely targets kids, so there’s some accusations of it effectively being gambling for kids. After that people dug into his whole life and found out one of his employees was convicted of statutory rape and he was aware, which is a bad look for a channel mostly watched by children. It’s like a 3/10 on internet controversy scales. Doing something common and dumb but not obviously malicious, and then just stuff that looks bad without concrete evidence anything bad actually happene
Critical blackeyeblitzar · 2024-09 · on “How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)”
In case people aren’t aware of the “fraud” accusations mentioned in this comment, here’s a video: [this video] There are many more discussing all that has come out recently about that channel.
Critical blackeyeblitzar · 2024-09 · on “How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF)”
See [this video] It alleges that many of the “contests” are staged and artificially manipulated and potentially violate laws around such games. I think to many that might feel like fraud.
Critical SilverElfin · 2025-09 · on “MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data”
Does anyone remember when this person who worked for Mr Beast outed their fraudulent tactics? You couldn’t bring it up in a comment on their videos at all. They had a team continuous censoring all honest discussion on their videos. I find the whole phenomenon around Beast to be gross. [this video]
Critical SilverElfin · 2025-09 · on “MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data”
It’s funny how he’s admired by Chamath and other Silicon Valley types for his entrepreneurship or good deeds or whatever when the core of how his channel works is deceiving viewers [this video]
Critical SilverElfin · 2025-09 · on “MrBeast Failed to Disclose Ads and Improperly Collected Children's Data”
I just pass on this video from a former Mr Beast employee that tends to open people’s eyes up. Mr Beast has tried every tactic to bury and suppress this. In particular deleting all mention of it on any social media where his team can delete comments / replies. [this video]