The YouTuber’s chocolate brand has proven to be popular among his fans after Mr. Beast first launched Feastables back in January 2022.
The content creator, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, faced controversy earlier this year over claims that child slave labor was involved in the making of the chocolate.
A fellow YouTuber who goes by the name of Ahnestly argued that Donaldson was indirectly supporting child labor after suggesting that the cocoa used could be sourced from suppliers that are involved with child labor.
This caused quite a stir online, with fans becoming concerned about the origins of the cocoa in Feastables.
Now, Donaldson has spoken out after sitting down with fellow YouTuber Oompaville.
In the video, he said: “That one was a crazy one when I woke up and saw those videos claiming I use slave labor, which, what’s funny, is any of those creators—I’m just going to say it—you could have just literally messaged me and I could have given you the facts.
“But they didn’t, and so that was a crazy few days, like, before I go into how we ethically source our cocoa, and these are just flat-out lies.”
He went on to say that he had put out a press release, but ‘people still were claiming we use slave labor and just ignored it’.
Feastables is a popular chocolate brand by the YouTuber (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images).
When researching for his chocolate company, Donaldson said that he has ‘lived and breathed this’.
He went on to add, “I’ve visited the farms; I personally put over a thousand hours of my own time into this.
“So, the majority of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa. Feastables, early on, we sourced from Peru, which doesn’t have ethical problems.
“But after we started getting bigger, all roads lead to you having to source from west Africa because that’s just where most of the world’s cocoa is grown.”
The YouTuber said that he got in touch with Tony’s Chocolonely, who are the gold standard when it comes to ethical cocoa sourcing.
Donaldson continued: “We actually formed a joint partnership through Tony’s Open Chain with Feastables when we were moving over there, and this has been a thing well before the controversy, before anyone says, ‘Oh, it’s only because of controversy’.”
Mr. Beast has finally addressed the allegations against him during a tell-all interview.
The YouTuber has also suggested that he will sue a former employee.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is well known for his videos involving elaborate contests with huge cash prizes.
His antics online have earned him the title of the most subscribed channel, with 332 million subscribers.
Recently, the YouTuber has found himself in controversy, with allegations being made against him and other co-hosts.
Now, he’s finally spoken out after sitting down with fellow YouTuber Oompaville.
Speaking about the investigation into his company, Donaldson said, “I have hundreds of employees, and when we brought the outside third party in, I was like, ‘Hey, talk to whoever you need to get an honest pulse of how some people are feeling’.”
Donaldson went on to say that ‘there were some things that people hadn’t made us aware of’ that they felt more comfortable talking to the third party about.
Oompaville asked the YouTuber: “How did you feel when you found out that a third-party investigation concluded that there were incidents of harassment in your business?”
Donaldson replied, “I started educating myself, and I’ve been bringing in new leaders and people who have worked in bigger companies, and I was just like, ‘Help me make sure this kind of stuff doesn’t happen and educate me on these kinds of things.’.
MrBeast has finally spoken out (YouTube/@oompaville)
“This company is growing so fast, I keep saying the number 400 just so people realize this isn’t just 10 employees making YouTube videos like it was for me five years ago, and so my first instinct was just like, ‘educate me. Who do I bring in? How do we solve these things?’”
Donaldson claimed that ‘an amount of people had to be disciplined or terminated’.
Oompaville went on to question whether the YouTuber plans to sue his former employee, known online as Dogpack404.
In response, Donaldson said: “Well, there’s tons of examples of him intentionally manipulating things to not be true and posting online tons and tons and tons of that.
“He has basically an hour and 27 minute video, and an hour of it is just flat out proving manipulation and lies and causing a lot of harm to my businesses.
“I’ve literally had people pull out millions of dollars and then tell me it was directly because of
his video.
“I instantly was like, ‘can you send that in writing?’ so you know if I win a case or anything, I can
directly point damages.”
The YouTuber addressed the allegations (Instagram/@mrbeast)
What were Dogpack404’s allegations against MrBeast?
Uploading a video to YouTube under the name Dogpack404, the former employee made various claims about the MrBeast channel, including allegations that giveaways are fake and contestants aren’t random subscribers.
The former staff member claimed that you won’t appear in a MrBeast video unless you’re ‘family or friends with someone’ that works for Donaldson.
In the video, he accused Donaldson of scripting his videos, claiming that the contestants are not random subscribers and that the YouTuber uses CGI in the background of his videos.
