Buying followers is a controversial subject in the realm of social media influencers. It’s also a dirty secret for some big names and brands on the internet.
Now one man thinks he found proof that popular makeup artist James Charles may have accrued some of her followers through nefarious means.
Las Vegas-based content creator Jay Klay (@jay_klay) claims he was surprised to learn he was following Charles, despite never tapping the follow button.
“You guys know who this James Charles character is, right? Like, I am aware of him so I’m sure you’re aware. Well, I don’t follow him. Never needed to. Not into makeup, don’t do makeup. Not really into his personal brand. Whatever, it’s just me. Well, a lot of people online were saying he’s been losing millions of followers after what he said,” Klay says.
Klay says he’s liked Charles’ content in the past and his opinion of him is neutral.
“I personally have no issue with him because I don’t know him and anything that said about him to me is speculation,” he told The Big Lead via TikTok direct message.
What is James Charles’ latest controversy?
In May, Interview Magazine reported that a scathing response Charles sent to a Spirit Airlines employee led people to unfollow him en masse. According to the outlet, a former Spirit Airlines employee messaged Charles asking him to donate $1,600 to her GoFundMe after the airline closed.
Charles wasn’t a fan of her internet panhandling. And he reportedly let her know without equivocation in a since deleted TikTok. He purportedly began the clip by reading her request in a mocking tone.
“You know what else would help you? Getting another job,” Charles allegedly said. “Try that, because in the time it took you to copy and paste the same f*** a** message to me, who you don’t follow by the way, and to 100 other influencers and celebrities, you could’ve applied to a hundred other jobs, because you’re a lazy piece of s*** and you’re entitled. Why would I ever help you?”
People apparently didn’t take too kindly to Charles’ response to the out-of-work Spirit Airlines worker. He purportedly started shedding followers.
Man discovers he follows James Charles
Klay heard about the controversy.
In a direct message, Klay told The Big Lead that he’d seen Charles’ videos and liked them before, but never felt compelled to follow him because his videos showed up on his for your page (FYP).
In his post, he says he’d heard rumors that Charles pays TikTok to keep his 40 million followers. But he didn’t believe it.
“A lot of you kept coming on and I thought it was just for clout, like you just wanted great videos or whatever. Saying that TikTok, he paid TikTok for you to follow him,” he said. Initially, Klay didn’t believe it.
“Well then explain to me this. I don’t follow him,” Klay says. He shows a recording of him searching James Charles on TikTok; it turned out he follows him.
Klay was stunned.
“Why was I following him? I never pushed that button. I have no reason to push that button and follow him. Like I don’t hate the kid but I have no reason to follow him,” he says.
He told The Big Lead, “I was even made aware that I was following his backup account and I did not know I was following either.”
Klay claims numerous attempts to unfollow Charles were unsuccessful. “I had to unfollow him four times for it to stick. Y’all weren’t lying. Try it out for yourself!” Klay says.
(The Big Lead was able to follow then immediately unfollow James Charles.)
“I have noticed that since posting my video that went viral, a lot of people have created similar videos or have confirmed on my video that they had the same situation,” Klay told The Big Lead. “I don’t know if they’re telling me the truth, but that’s what I’ve gathered from personal experience.”
The Big Lead has reached out to James Charles and TikTok via email.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com ’
