YouTube temporarily demonetized popular makeup artist James Charles for violating the platform’s Creator Responsibility Policy amid allegations that he was involved with sexting and grooming minors.
Charles is an online beauty and makeup influencer with 25.5 million subscribers on the video-sharing service. In recent months, he has faced allegations of sexual misconduct from more than 15 men and boys.
In a Tuesday statement to the Washington Examiner, YouTube confirmed Charles violated a company policy but did not detail how long he would be unable to collect advertisement revenue from his videos.
“We can confirm that we have applied our Creator Responsibility Policy and temporarily removed James Charles from the YouTube partner program,” a spokesperson said.
The CRP policy states: “If we see that a creator’s on and/or off-platform behavior harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem we may take action to protect the community.”
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Beauty brand Morphe severed ties with Charles last week, posting in a company statement on Twitter: “In light of the recent allegations against James Charles, Morphe and James have agreed to end our business relationship and wind down sales of the Morphe X James Charles product offering.” Charles and the brand began collaborating in 2018.
In a separate statement, the makeup vlogger said the decision to end ties with Morphe was “mutually agreed.” Additionally, Variety reported Charles was replaced by Zach Hsieh as the host of YouTube’s competition show Instant Influencer.
In an apology video earlier this month, Charles said he used YouTube as a dating app and now understands the problems that can cause.
“A power imbalance can happen when it’s not intentional,” he said. “What I wasn’t getting before is that the excitement that comes with talking to a celebrity is literally enough to make somebody do or say something that they normally wouldn’t. Even if that celebrity isn’t intentionally weaponizing their fame, money, or power.”
He alleged two of the underage accusers pretended to be adults, saying, “I trusted the information that was given to me rather than the information I could have and should have gotten myself.”
Charles said he was considering taking legal action against anyone spreading misinformation surrounding him.
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A member of Charles’s management team did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
