A Vine star has kissed a male fan as an apology after he claimed that HIV was a “fag” disease.

16-year-old Nash Grier, who has 8.7 million followers on the site, came under fire for the April video earlier this week.

The video – which has since been deleted – starts with a clip from an HIV awareness campaign. The clip says: “Get tested for HIV. It’s not a gay thing.”

The video then cuts to Grier, who shouts: “Yes it is! FAG!”

In a public apology on Twitter, he wrote: “I apologize for anything negative I’ve said towards gays and for that matter anyone. I was young, ignorant, stupid, and in a bad place.

“I’ve moved on and learned from my mistakes and I am so truly sorry to anyone I have offended. I have nothing against anyone or anything that promotes equality. Sorry again.”

Grier has now posed for a picture snogging a male fan, likely as a reference to the row.

Posting the picture on Tumblr, the fan wrote: “To all the people complaining about Nash being a homophobic who’s against gays; He willingly kissed a boy just for a snapchat story on top of apologizing twice.”

With 8.7 million followers, Grier has more than celebrities such as Ariana Grande (2.4 million), Ellen DeGeneres (2 million) and Wiz Khalifa (1.7 million) as well as the official Vine account (1.4 million). The second most followed account, KingBach, only has 7.3 million followers.