MrBeast accused of showing Ukraine without Crimea in worldwide challenge video

Popular YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson has found himself embroiled in controversy once again, this time over accusations he showed a map of the world where Crimea was not a part of Ukraine.

In the latest upload to his 177 million subscriber strong YouTube channel, titled ‘Every Country On Earth Fights For $250,000’, Donaldson held a series of events to crown the winner from 195 countries who would take home a gold medal.

However, in a frame from the video showing the states eliminated after each round, Ukraine – who went out in the first game – is shown in red, without Crimea included in the shaded country.

Such a decision has proven contentious online, given Crimea was annexed in 2014 by Russia, the country which, of course, is at war with Ukraine following its illegal invasion in February last year.

And as one Twitter/X user pointed out, the thumbnail for the video shows the contestants from countries such as the USA, Brazil, Poland, the UK, Japan and Russia:

Other social media users have also criticised the exclusion of Crimea from Ukraine, with one branding it “unacceptable”:

It’s not the first time MrBeast has been called out for one of his videos, as back in May, an upload in which Donaldson helped 1,000 deaf people “hear for the first time” was branded “harmful” by deaf social media users.

He also attracted similar controversy for a video in which he helped people access cataract surgery to cure their blindness.

Despite this latest backlash, MrBeast’s latest upload has already broken a YouTube record, by being the video (which isn’t a music video) to receive the most amount of views in 24 hours.

The video stands at more than 71 million views at the time of writing.

indy100 has contacted MrBeast for comment.

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