What is the Onlyjayus controversy?
OnlyJayus is considered a controversial content creator. Jayus’ recent content theft may be proof that they haven’t changed, despite their promises to be better in 2021.
Jayus, real name Isabella Avila, became popular for giving out random trivia on an array of topics on TikTok. Dislike for Isabella began when they complained about an unnamed TikTok content creator. They think that another TikTok creator, @thejonathanmoss, copied their video.
In a now-deleted tweet from 2020, Isabella claimed, “TikTok creators should be called out when they copy other TikTok creators word per word.” This was a reference to Jonathan Moss, another TikTok user who uploaded a video with the same fact Isabella recorded about. Both content creators sourced their information from an article posted in The Business Insider. Isabella did not apologize for taking the information without citation and believed that it was fair use. They didn’t retract their critique of Jonathan Moss.
Outed for racist and homophobic slurs
Their normal content isn’t polarizing by any means, but TikTok creator @freekdagemini unearthed several of Isabella’s messages from 2016. In the messages, Isabella called the other person an “n-word loving a-hole.” This comment was among other homophobic slurs. They also wished cancer upon the parents of the person they spoke to. Isabella’s followers turned against her, and they lost several opportunities. Netflix was among the partnerships they lost when their old remarks were made public.
Isabella became a hated content creator overnight for these comments. To make matters worse, a petition to ban Isabella off TikTok gained 447,000 signatures. Isabella apologized for the controversy through a generic TikTok video. The sincerity of the apology was questioned by other black creators, even if Isabella owned up to their mistake. Several commenters on TikTok would claim that Isabella only apologized because they were caught.
Although not everyone forgave Isabella, some black creators expressed their willingness to collaborate with her. Isabella wasn’t able to consistently reply to emails from these creators and blamed their ADHD diagnosis for their failings. They essentially ghosted the black creators and did not collaborate with them.
Ableist joke
Isabella could not stop getting themselves in hot water. After apologizing for their racist and homophobic comments, Isabella was scrutinized once more after making a joke about stealing wallets from service dog users. There’s no good time to make this joke, but the timing couldn’t even be worse for Isabella, who was coming from another controversy.
Instead of addressing the issue, Isabella shrugged the backlash off and refused to apologize.
Content theft in 2024
Recently, Isabella has been embroiled in another content theft allegation against TikTok user Everyday Alex. Isabella claimed that she got the idea for a video from Reddit, while Alex said he didn’t take the script from Reddit. Alex proved that Isabella lied and created the Reddit post. This was to make it seem as if they sourced the script off Reddit, which was a lie.
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