Famous YouTubers are paying drama channels to trash their rivals, babe can reveal. Influencers with millions of subscribers work with drama accounts – the ones who post viral videos about internet celeb gossip – as their personal PR machines. They use them to push negative publicity around their competition or positively spin their own scandals, and reward them with cash or clout.

Fans describe the practice as an "open secret" within the community, citing drama channel/influencer relations as the reason why receipts of old racist tweets emerge when they do, or why influencers might receive less negative publicity when they get exposed.

We contacted dozens of insiders in the influencer/beauty guru world, and a lot of the stars remained tight-lipped about this practice. But a prominent, household-name YouTuber agreed to an interview with babe on the condition of anonymity.

He described the "ecosystem" between popular influencers who vlog about their lives, and the drama channels that produce videos about them. He said trading promotion was common – a drama channel will work with an influencer in exchange for a shoutout. If a YouTuber asks their 10 million subscribers to start watching a specific channel, they can soar to fame.

"The industry turns over on relationships between drama channels and influencers," said the YouTuber, who explained how the former are rewarded by the latter when they diss their competition. In some ways it's just the latest version of Hollywood stars selling secrets to celeb news sites for money or publicity.

The YouTuber added that he was also aware of influencers who hired full-time employees to scour the social media and IRL history of their rivals in order to dig up dirt – like opposition research in politics – and tweet it from stan accounts they were paid to manage. "It's a business move," he said.

Jeffree Star, the influencer who looks more egg than human, and more rat than egg, has been accused of rewarding YouTubers to make positive videos about him. This thread on a forum that discusses the beauty guru world claims Jeffree, who has been caught saying the n-word multiple times, is known to give designer handbags to friends who upload positive videos about him. We contacted his team but did not hear back.

Meanwhile fans continue to throw allegations that influencers regularly pay drama channels to scalp their rivals. Zaza9000, a well-known Reddit user who used to manage a forum that exposed influencers, says the trend is "one of those untalked-about secrets that everyone knows about but won't speak about," claiming thousands of dollars can change hands for publicity.

"They get 'friendship', shout-outs, clout, free PR, and straight-up paid for making the influencer look good," she explained. "Sometimes influencers will seek out multiple drama channels and befriend them in order to get in their good favor."

At a lower level, you can directly pay Instagram accounts to feature drama on their channel. Expooked ("follow to become skinny" is their bio) is a drama account with 160k followers – they charge $35 for a permanent post and $15 for a 24 hour story, which seems like quite good value.

If you have ever been asked by a YouTuber to make a drama video in exchange for financial reward, message [email protected].

There is no implication that the cover photo refers to a video that involves a paid deal between a drama channel and a YouTube star.

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@hshukman