Shane Dawson Announced That He’s Returning to YouTube and the Internet Isn’t Happy

Trigger warning: this article discusses sexual assault, racism and suicide.

This morning, YouTube personality Shane Dawson announced his return to the platform after almost a year's break due to his involvement in countless controversies.

While the YouTuber’s announcement seems positive on his end—and he continues to maintain a follower count of over 20.4 million subscribers—the internet has loudly exclaimed that they have had enough of him and the negative messaging he brings to the platform.

Shane Dawson Hints at YouTube Return After Past Controversies: It's been almost a year since Shane Dawson last released a video on YouTube. In his first Instagram post in six months, the content creator hinted at his return to his channel. https://t.co/FkgC4GxcQq pic.twitter.com/1l1gGZKjUC

— @PhuketDailyNews (@PhuketDailyNews) June 10, 2021

Before we get into his announcement, here’s a little bit of background as to why he’s been cancelled so many times.

Long story short, Shane has been creating content on YouTube for the last 15 years and has made a pretty big footprint on the online community. In fact, he was once known as ‘YouTube’s King’.

He made and starred in several (awful) movies, started a podcast and released an entire makeup line alongside fellow controversial YouTuber Jeffery Star, just to name a few things.

Unfortunately though, during this time he also recorded and shared footage and audio of himself participating in Blackface, sexualising underage girls, alleging sexual acts with animals, consistently using racial slurs and inserting himself into YouTuber community drama that led to the downfall of other creators, including Tati Westbrook and James Charles’ careers.

YouTuber @dangelowallace made a really comprehensive video on all of Shane's controversies if you need a more detailed catch up.

Essentially, this guy has crossed almost every line out there, and many of his (now ex) followers, viewers and other YouTube personalities believe that he no longer deserves a place on the platform.

Due to the warranted backlash, public outcry and mainstream media attention of Shane’s controversies, YouTube cut the monetisation on all three of his channels and Morphe wiped his entire beauty range from their stores.

Following this, Shane left YouTube and mostly the rest of the internet (aside from a few Insta stories here and there) after posting an apology video.

We’re not going to include the apology video here so as to not give Shane a platform, however you can still see it on his YouTube channel now if you want to watch it.

After his apology video and departure, many of us assumed that that was the end of Shane’s online career. However, after this morning’s announcement, we now know we were wrong.

The fact that there are still people that support Shane Dawson after the insane amount of disturbing videos/comments from him just boggles my minds.

— fan account (@knnewagb) June 9, 2021

As most people expect with ‘cancel culture’, personalities who have been called out for inappropriate or problematic behaviour tend to feel the consequences of their actions and lose their influence and place in the limelight.

However, it seems that despite the countless times that Shane has been ‘cancelled,’ it is clear that he is still able to maintain a large following of supporters.

This is not the first time internet personalities have gotten away with attempting redemption arcs. YouTuber Logan Paul is a clear example of this when he returned to the platform after sharing footage of a deceased person in a Japanese forest to his vlogging channel.

cancel culture doesnt exist. look at fucking logan paul, chris brown, kendall jenner. that got more exposure. more money. #rbgcspeaks

— SILVIA (@ENDERSPEARL) June 9, 2021

We’re not the only ones who have noticed how convenient Shane’s return to the internet has been either. Twitter erupted this morning with users loudly expressing how much they don’t want Shane back on YouTube.

Every time I see Shane Dawson trending pic.twitter.com/I2rFcIIndK

— Jahnier Bey-el (@Jahnier_12) June 9, 2021

the world if shane dawson would just quit youtube pic.twitter.com/37VXosWCfM

— CJ (@_akaCJ) June 9, 2021

so frenemies is really over and shane dawson is planning to return to youtube??? pic.twitter.com/eIvEd3WiyS

— 🖤 rotty 🖤 (@rotyourbr4in) June 10, 2021

why, dear god, why am i hearing about shane dawson again pic.twitter.com/akfFzPZnup

— willow (@Iuvermore) June 9, 2021

In Shane’s post to Instagram, he wrote that his break from YouTube has been due to his mental health—not the fact that he was basically chased off the platform.

He also goes on to call himself ‘dad’ (gross) and says a bit about life re-evaluation.

Again, we’re not going to include it here, but you can see the full (short) announcement on his Instagram.

It seems that there is still some time left before Shane makes an official return to YouTube, but we’ll keep you updated when he does.

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Header Image: Instagram (@shanedawson)