YouTuber Elle Darby loses over 80,000 followers after racist tweets resurface

5 January 2022, 13:42

Shane Dawson apologises for making racist YouTube videos

By Jazmin Duribe

Elle has since released an apology video and announced she would be taking a break from social media.

YouTuber Elle Darby has lost over 80,000 followers since her racist and homophobic tweets have been exposed.

The British influencer is known for her wholesome family and lifestyle YouTube content. However, over Christmas Elle's offensive Twitter posts from 2011 were unearthed. In the tweets, Elle used racial slurs and made homophobic and fatphobic comments. An account belonging to Elle's fiancé, Connor Swift, was also found to have made racist and hateful remarks.

In a tweet from 2011, Elle said: "I just hate Polish people and Indians really." In another from the same year, she tweeted: "Squinting like a Chinese man because this cursing bus hasn’t got any curtains to hide the sun and all that fuckery." She also used the N-word, questioned why there is a Black History Month and referred to someone as a "little gay boy". The tweets have now all been deleted.

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Soon after, Elle released a statement apologising for her offensive tweets. It read: "These comments are not a reflection of who either of us are as grown adults, nor who we were at the time they were made, and do not align with what we stand for."

She later followed it up with an almost four minute YouTube apology video titled 'I'm sorry'. She said: "The tweets I made in 2011 were so disgusting, and so far from the person I am today, they were racist, fatphobic, homophobic. I am ashamed and disgusted in myself.

"There is not one person on this planet that hates me more than I do right now and the pain I know I have caused so many of you eats me up. To know that I was someone who you considered a great friend and this image of me is now tainted. I don’t even recognise myself to have been [that person]."

She continued: "I hope you can see this is not the person I am today. I know those disgusting words and awful tweets will always be associated with my name. Since I made those tweets I have had better education in these last ten years. I have let down everybody there is no more humiliating feeling than that, I want to say once again I’m sorry."

Elle's fans are now unfollowing her social media accounts in their droves. According to Social Blade, Elle has lost almost 60,000 Instagram followers since January 1 and she currently has 721,000. And on YouTube, Elle has lost 23,000 subscribers, dropping from 611,000 to 588,000 subscribers.

Watch Elle Darby's apology video here.

i'm sorry.

Elle said she will now be taking time away from social media to reflect on her actions. She continued: "I know those disgusting words and those awful tweets are always going to be associated with my name, and I wish I could do something to take that back and change that but the only thing I can do is continue to better myself."