CONCERNS were raised by fans and critics of YouTuber James Somerton after a post was shared online about “ending things.”
Somerton was slammed online in December after he was accused of plagiarizing several other writers and content creators over the years.
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A nearly four-hour video by Hbomberguy went into detail, highlighting multiple instances of Somerton taking others’ content to use as his own.
Since then, Somerton has deleted most of his social media accounts or set them to private.
Somerton shared an eerie message on his private X account: “If this message is live it means I scheduled it before ending things. I have videos scheduled to go out over the next couple of days.”
Somerton explained that he had directions left behind for any money made from his videos to be donated to The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.
“They’ve tried very hard to pull me back but there’s simply no life for me anymore. I’ve lost everything…My only friend, my livelihood, my name…
“And it’s all my own fault. The world will be a little bit better off now. Goodbye.”
The post sent online users into a frenzy as many became worried about Somerton’s well-being.
“Wait, is James Somerton okay what’s going on?” wrote one person on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“James Somerton posted this on his private acct (sic). I have an intense dislike for the guy but I hope this is not true,” wrote another person.
A third wrote: “I’m still mad at James Somerton but that’s all the more reason why I want to see him do better.”
Jessie Earl, a creator also known as Jessie Gender who had much of their content lifted by Somerton wrote: “I don’t know what to say. I hope he’s ok.”
Kat Lo, a producer for Hbomberguys’ channel wrote on Reddit that the team had been attempting to call in a wellness check on Somerton.
“This post did come from his account, so it appears to not be fake,” wrote Lo.
“While it’s valid to discuss this event and your own experiences relating to it, please be respectful and compassionate for him.”
BOMBSHELL VIDEO
The YouTube community was rocked after Hbomberguy, real name Harry Brewis, uploaded the hours-long video, Plagiarism and You(Tube).
The video, which sits at 17 million views at the time of writing, detailed acts of plagiarism made by several high-profile YouTubers with the most notable being Somerton.
Somerton, a Canadian creator who built a platform creating video essays on LGBTQ+ literature had a massive following of more than 330,000 followers before Hbomberguys’ video.
He was accused of repeatedly plagiarizing LGBTQ+ writers and other content creators – sometimes even directly lifting passages from books or online posts only to change some phrases around to make it seem as if it were original content.
Somerton saw a massive drop in subscribers after an intense wave of backlash.
In two separate apology videos he made addressing the allegations, Somerton mentioned the impact the video had on his mental health.
“I’m really, really sorry. For the stuff in the videos, the not crediting people and – for a lot of videos, I did the opening titles thing and I tried to put, ‘This is based on this person’s research or this person’s book’, but I know now that wasn’t enough. That wasn’t okay,” he explained.
“There were a lot of times that stuff just got put in, and there was no attempt at crediting anybody.”
The video was removed from his channel with Somerton writing in a note that he wasn’t “in a healthy frame of mind to be posting anything online.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255), chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
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