YouTuber Shane Dawson loses staggering number of subscribers after Willow Smith backlash

Jaden Smith tweeted his disgust at the offensive post involving his sister

YouTube star Shane Dawson has lost a huge number of subscribers following a backlash to offensive content he apologised for posting.

Days after releasing the apology video on 28 June, Dawson lost more than 700,000 subscribers.

Just over one week later, though, his subscriber count dropped by more than one million from 23.1 million to 22.1 million.

In the video titled “Taking Accountability”, Dawson, 31, apologised for his actions, including wearing blackface, using racist slurs and joking about murder victims.

Shortly after, a number of other clips began recirculating on social media.

One video shows Dawson appearing to pretend to masturbate in front of a Disney poster of Willow Smith, then 11, while referring to her hit song “Whip My Hair”.

Willow’s brother, Jaden, and their mother Jada Pinkett Smith, both tweeted their disgust at the video on 27 June.

“SHANE DAWSON I AM DISGUSTED BY YOU,” Jaden tweeted. Pinkett Smith added: ”To Shane Dawson ... I’m done with the excuses.”

In his apology post, Dawson said: “This video is coming from a place of just wanting to own up to my s***, wanting to own up to everything I’ve done on the internet that has hurt people – that has added to the problem, that has not been handled well. I should have been punished for things.”

Dawson said he had removed any videos he could find that were offensive, but has yet to comment on the Willow Smith video.

He has been relatively silent on social media since a row with fellow Instagram star Tati Westbrook.