Here's The Real Reason Why Charli D'Amelio Lost Almost A Million Followers In A Single Day
On the surface, it looks bad. Like, really bad. But everything isn't as it seems. In fact, the tide might already be turning.
So, Charli D'Amelio lost nearly a million followers in a single day. But, although the numbers look bad on the surface, what they actually reveal is kind of the opposite.
The social media star, famously known as the most-followed person on TikTok, was closing in on the 100 million milestone this week, something which was made even more impressive by the fact it took little more than a year to achieve.
But the 16-year-old found herself on the receiving end of an intense backlash after a disastrous YouTube video uploaded to her family's channel on Monday went viral for all the wrong reasons.
The video was titled "Dinner With the D'Amelios" and featured the family hosting a dinner for a surprise guest, who was later revealed to be close friend and mentor, James Charles.
Following the video, Charli and older sister Dixie were called out for what was deemed "ungrateful" and "disrespectful" behaviour towards personal chef, Aaron May, after they aimed a number of negative comments at him and the food.
Both Charli and Dixie made various comments about the dishes that were served, and at one point, Dixie threw up at the table after trying a snail. Meanwhile, Charli could be heard jokingly asking if there were chicken nuggets available instead after being served a dish from the chef.
In fact, it was hard to find any positive feedback on the video at all and the internet was awash with backlash over the rude comments.
However, despite losing close to a million followers in one day, all isn't quite what it seems. In fact, the numbers tell a slightly different story and seemingly reveal that Charli hasn't been "cancelled" after all.
While the majority of criticism about the video focused on Charli and Dixie's comments to the chef, another clip was flying under the radar. It showed Charli talking about hitting the 100 million milestone and seemingly complaining that she wasn't going to achieve the goal by Friday.
"Ugh, I wish I had more time," she said during a discussion about the family's successful year. "'Cuz imagine if I hit 100 mil a year after hitting a mil."
James Charles, straight-faced and seemingly unimpressed, quickly responded: "Was the 95 [million followers] not enough for you?"
And it seems that this was the real reason behind the mass unfollowing spree. Taking a look at Charli's social media accounts reveals that TikTok is the only platform where she's actually lost followers. In fact, she's gained followers everywhere else.
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On Thursday, the day of the mass unfollowing, Charli gained 85,000 followers on Instagram and 21,000 followers on Twitter, as well as 20,000 new subscribers on YouTube.
This suggests that the rude comments from the YouTube video — which seemed to be the biggest problem on the surface — weren't actually an issue for the D'Amelio sisters, with Dixie gaining more than 200,000 TikTok followers on the same day that Charli's number plummeted.
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As well as this, the D'Amelio family YouTube channel, where the video that kicked the drama off was originally uploaded, gained 40,000 subscribers.
So, no, it doesn't look like Charli D'Amelio is cancelled. If anything, it just seems like her TikTok followers are trying to teach her a lesson, stopping her from reaching the big milestone to make a point.
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In an emotional Instagram Live posted amid the backlash, Charli revealed she'd been receiving a huge amount of hate and acknowledged that her words could have come across the wrong way.
"I genuinely just thought it would be so cool to hit a huge, huge milestone a year after hitting another milestone," she explained. "I never meant for you guys to make it seem like you were numbers or did not mean anything."
"You can hate on me for whatever I've done, but the fact that all of this is happening because of a misunderstanding..." she went on in tears, revealing she'd received death threats as a result of the backlash. "You can say I'm disrespectful, you can say I don't have basic human decency, but at the end of the day, I'm still a person, no matter how many followers I have."
It's interesting to note that Charli has none other than James Charles in her corner while facing this latest backlash — someone with first hand experience of tackling a controversy and mass unfollowing before bouncing back stronger than ever.
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You probably don't need me to remind you that, in 2019, James found himself at the centre of a backlash involving Tati Westbrook and Jeffree Star which saw him lose three million YouTube subscribers — 1.2 million of which he lost in a single day.
However, despite a comeback looking unlikely, James eventually came out on top. After dipping to 13.4 million subscribers during the drama, the beauty YouTuber is now just shy of 24 million, almost as many as Jeffree and Tati combined.