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James Charles says he was threatened by an Uber driver

The driver allegedly called Charles a dumba** and b*tch and threatened him with violence.

 

Rachel Kiley

IRL

Posted on Mar 1, 2020

There’s no question that Uber has faced a lot of flack over the last few years, both in regard to drivers creating dangerous scenarios for passengers (or vice versa) and how the company itself handles these complaints

And it seems even celebrities aren’t immune to having troubling experiences with the rideshare app.

Beauty YouTuber James Charles tweeted about a disturbing encounter with an Uber driver last week, worrying his fans and reminding us all that Uber’s problems haven’t gone away.

“@Uber @Uber_Support hi! one of your drivers in orlando just called my employee & I dumbasses, bitches, & threatened to hit us,” he wrote at around 9:30pm from Florida. “please contact me as soon as possible.”

While Charles didn’t elaborate on the situation any further or address the general public about what happened, Uber did respond fairly quickly, letting him know that it is taking “this very seriously.”

The influencer’s fans were quick to jump on the tweets, expressing concern for Charles’ safety.

Charles has long been a polarizing figure online, causing controversies over alleged racism and poorly-received jokes about being trans, to name a few. The internet’s love/hate relationship with the beauty guru elicited a number of responses suggesting he must have done something to have his driver harass him or saying outright that he deserved it.

However, studies have shown that LGBTQ people are among those more likely to be discriminated against by rideshare drivers, and several past examples of harassment have gone viral.

We still don’t know any further details about this particular incident involving Charles, but it should go without saying that harassment and the threat of violence aren’t suddenly amusing just because someone is annoying on the internet.

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*First Published: Mar 1, 2020, 3:26 pm CST