When is it ever okay to sexually harass women as a “prank”?

When is it ever okay to ask minors to send you nude photos or to have sex with you?

When is it ever okay to get away with publicized sexual harassment?

For years, YouTube has been considered a safe haven for both content creators and viewers.

As the popular site has evolved, some creators have built a sizable following–even rivalling huge fan bases such as that of One Direction. Youtubers such as Sam Pepper, Jason Sampson (Veeoneeye), and Karim Slimani (Karim Abridged) have huge fan bases, each averaging about one million subscribers. Most of these subscribers are adolescent girls.

YouTube stars have access to millions of people who would do almost anything for them. Although you only see five minutes of their daily lives, viewers feel as if they can relate to content creators. People actually look up to these YouTubers. Fans begin to believe they actually know these people, and even though they are only viewed through a screen, fans find that they can trust YouTubers.

But what happens when popular content creators abuse their fan’s trust?

The idea of meeting your favorite YouTuber can be extremely exciting. Hanging out with other dedicated subscribers and actually seeing your beloved YouTuber face to face can seem like a dream.

It seems like a dream until this YouTuber sexually harasses you.

There have been multiple accounts of YouTube sensation, Sam Pepper, sexually harassing his fans. From inappropriate petting to asking for nude photos, Pepper has manipulated his loyal fanbase for his own pleasure. Many of his victims refused to speak up about the harassment due to both Pepper’s manipulative character and his vicious fangirls.

That is until Pepper released a “prank” video where he is seen groping random women’s butts. The YouTube community quickly and negatively responded to this video. As people demanded YouTube to remove the video, Pepper released two more videos, one where women pinched men’s butts and another where Pepper claims that both videos were intended as a “social experiment.”

In the midst of the public’s anger about the videos showcasing sexual harassment, viewers didn’t easily buy into Pepper’s excuse. Outraged and empowered, victims of Pepper began speaking up, some of whom are well-respected members of the YouTube community.

One such victim was Dottie Martin (thisbedottie), a British vlogger. She published a video which recalls a date with Pepper. During the date, Pepper persistently tried to place his hands on her body, and after Martin refused he abandoned her on the date. When she called him out on it later, Pepper accused her of tricking him and suggested that she owed him something.

“It suggests that one, I had agreed to do anything more than go to the cinema with him; two, because I let him kiss me he was entitled to do anything else; and three, that his niceness only lasted as long as I held sexual promise,” Martin said.

Although YouTube removed Pepper’s videos under violation of the company’s “Nudity and Sexual Content” policy and banned the YouTuber from attending events like Playlist Live and VidCon, viewers further demanded that Pepper be banned from YouTube as a whole.

Pepper isn’t the only YouTuber to abuse his fans. Fellow content creators, Jason Sampson (Veeoneeye) and Karim Abridged have also been revealed for sexually manipulating their fans.