YouTube sensation MrBeast has been accused of fostering an unsafe working environment on his biggest project yet.

A civil court filing claims contestants on his Beast Games collaboration with Amazon experienced sexual harassment, misogyny and not even “bare-minimum-legal working conditions”.

It means MrBeast, real name James Donaldson, has seen his attempt to turn his YouTube videos into a reality TV show on Amazon Prime result in a lawsuit that threatens to upend the 26-year-old’s career.

Five anonymous contestants on Beast Games, promoted as the world’s largest live game show, have alleged they were misled and experienced a toxic work environment and sexual harassment while it was being filmed.

The allegations were made in a 54-page, heavily redacted document that was filed in a Los Angeles court.

Although the details of what allegedly occurred to the contestants on set have been redacted, the document does claim they were subject to “unreasonable, unsafe, and unlawful employment conditions”.

“The female contestants particularly and collectively suffered as a result of defendant’s actions,” the filing said.

“The Beast Games work environment systematically fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism.”

It also accuses the producers of Beast Games of misleading contestants about the total number of people competing on the show, denying them privacy and failing to supply reasonable access to hygienic products and food.

“The supposedly magnanimous MrBeast® did not want to use the alleged unconstrained resources to provide fair wages or even bare-minimum-legal working conditions,” the filing said.

“Senior management and ownership had actual and/or constructive notice that its production staff was aware of, but failed to remedy the violence and sexual harassment.”

Who is Mr Beast?

Donaldson rose to fame as, according to the filings, the most followed social media creator in the world and the first YouTube billionaire.

Boasting more than 300 million subscribers on YouTube and over 100 million on TikTok, he has made his name hosting competitions, philanthropic endeavours and reaction videos after posting his first YouTube video at age 13.

He has worked to fundraise for tree planting and cleaning oceans, and has given away food, shoes and wells in Africa, as well as hundreds of thousands in technology to underprivileged children.

This has earned him a reputation as a family-friendly content creator.

The filing said that Donaldson produces “stunt philanthropy”, which “typically features MrBeast performing corporate-sponsored, attention-getting philanthropy for publicity”,” where he gives away corporate money in the form of goods, cash and houses and “his corporate sponsors compensate him with even more corporate money”.

Donaldson is best known for his elaborate giveaways, like when he visited Sydney in June. Photo: Getty

Beast Games was set to be his biggest project yet, with contestants competing for $5 million in cash in a format similar to Netflix’s hit drama series Squid Game, and previous YouTube videos made by Donaldson.

Controversy

The civil court case isn’t the first time Donaldson has been subject to controversy: He announced earlier this year that he would be hiring outside investigators to examine claims that a close friend and producer on his show had groomed others.

He has also recently teamed up with fellow influencer Logan Paul, who has been accused of failing to refund his fans who bought into a fraudulent NFT scheme that was promoted on his channels in a business venture aimed at children.

In a clip that resurfaced in July, Donaldson joked years earlier in 2017 about buying black people and “n-words” for money, while also using homophobic slurs.

“When Jimmy was a teenager he acted like many kids and used inappropriate language while trying to be funny,” a spokesperson said to various media outlets.

“Over the years he has repeatedly apologised and has learned that increasing influence comes with increased responsibility to be more aware and more sensitive to the power of language.”