After YouTuber James Charles lost more than 2 million subscribers following a feud with fellow beautification blogger Tati Westbrook over the weekend, tens of thousands of Twitter users voted on whether the 19-year-old makeup master's career would survive the scandal.
The Sunday Twitter poll, launched at 5.26 p.m. ET by YouTuber Daniel Keem, asks users to vote on whether they believe Charles' career "will survive" the scandal. Of the roughly 45,000 people who voted within the first 100 minutes, 77 percent said Charles' career is "RIP" while only 23 percent thought it would survive. Polling will last 24 hours.
James Charles career
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) May 12, 2019
Charles was slammed by fans this weekend for arriving hours late to a meet-and-greet at his first Australian "Sisters" pop-up store. The internet makeup guru uploaded an 8-minute-long apology to Westbrook titled "Tati" roughly around the same time he was scheduled to connect with fans and give a Q&A at Pacific Fair, Queensland's largest shopping center.
Numerous fans took to social media on Saturday to express their frustrations for having to wait two hours in the sun to meet the star without being notified of his late arrival. Disappointed followers also condemned Charles for alleged behavior exposed by Westbrook in an earlier video she posted to her channel.
Charles was heavily criticized on Twitter for apparently deciding to prioritize diffusing the Westbrook scandal over his mall appearance with fans. "Katy Perry can do a whole concert after her husband breaks up w/ her with a text but @jamescharles shows up 2 hrs late to his meet & greet in Australia bc of "personal issues'," user @Cloerayne12 tweeted.
Two Australian travel vloggers, who uploaded a video to their YouTube channel Exploration Date detailing their trip to meet Charles at the Queensland event, revealed that Charles spoke for fewer than 10 minutes and seemed distracted by the scandal when he finally arrived at the event.
Westbrook sparked the public feud with Charles on Friday in a nearly 45-minute-long exposé video title "Bye Sister," where the YouTuber explained her falling out with her fellow influencer. In the footage, Westbrook, a former mentor of Charles, accused him of disrespecting their friendship by making a sponsored Instagram post for her direct competitor Sugar Bear Hair. The 37-year-old makeup influencer also called out Charles' alleged "gross" behavior regarding straight men.
"I have finally had enough," Westbrook in her video."Oh my God, you tried to trick a straight man into thinking he's gay, yet again. And, somehow, you're the victim. You know, it's really disgusting to manipulate someone's sexuality, especially when they are still emerging into adulthood."
She added: "You are using your fame, your power, your money to play with people's emotions. You're threatening to ruin them, you're threatening to embarrass them and you're doing that to have them behave sexually in your favor."
In his apology video, Charles admitted he had been in "a lot of unique and strange situations that have left people confused or upset," before noting that he has "learned the hard way."
"Boys have been a topic talked a lot about on my social media journey, and it's a topic that wish I hadn't," he said. "I've been involved in a lot of unique and strange situations that have left people confused or upset. I learned the hard way about ways that I can interact with boys that I've put trust in and ones that I shouldn't be talking to."
"This is a conversation that I know a lot of people are uncomfortable with and it's something I should've been far more careful with bringing into the public eye, especially with the last situation that happened," Charles added.
