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Greg Evans
Aug 07, 2018
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Pedro Fiuza/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock/Twitter
YouTube star Alfie Deyes has found himself at the centre of controversy after he attended Brighton Pride and posed for a photo while sitting on an AIDS memorial.
The 24-year-old shared a photo of himself on Twitter and Instagram of him waving a rainbow flag while perched on the statue.
Yet he promptly deleted both posts after he was criticised for being 'disrespectful.' Deyes claimed that he didn't realise what the monument was for and apologised.
However, Deyes, who is in a relationship with fellow YouTube celebrity Zoe 'Zoella' Suggs, who also went to Brighton, didn't help the situation by adding another tweet trying to project his innocence.
In a discussion following that tweet, Deyes said in a now-deleted message to Evan Edinger, another YouTube star:
I just stepped on an ant as I walked down the road...I hope no one saw...'ALFIE DEYES STAMPS ON INNOCENT ANIMAL UNTIL IT DIES.'
Some interpreted this as comparing AIDS to ants, which then prompted another defence from him.
It is unclear why Deyes or Zoella attended pride. In November last year, Zoella apologised after old tweets of her's emerged where she made fun of gay men.
Deyes hit headlines in June after he posted a video claiming that he was "not a Tory" which soon became a viral meme.
He has also faced criticism after he challenged himself to live on £1 a day, which saw him branded "insensitive" and "tone-deaf" for making a game out of poverty.
At the time he issued this apology and also changed the video to better reflect the subject:
I’m so sorry if this has upset you, that was never my intention.
I’d seen many others do this video recently and wanted to try it myself.