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Tyler Oliveira (born January 6, 2000) is an American YouTuber and self-described journalist. He made several challenge videos before transitioning to videos centered on man-on-the-street interviews, documenting drug decriminalisation in Canada and the Springfield pet-eating hoax. Oliveira has been criticized for perpetuating misinformation and recording interviewees without their consent and misrepresenting them.

History

Between 2019 and 2021, Oliveira posted several fitness challenge videos, including imitating the workout of Saitama from One-Punch Man, running on a treadmill for twenty four hours straight, bench pressing his own weight underwater, performing the Murph challenge daily for a month, and training to be a boxer in thirty days.

Oliveira posted a video in January 2020 where he attempted to soak up a pool using a large number of paper towel rolls. After he realized that it would require more than a million paper towels to do so, he attempted to explode the remaining paper towels with a firework. Several viewers criticized the video as being extremely wasteful. Initially, Oliveira argued that the paper towels would have existed regardless of whether he used them or not. A few days later, he apologized for the video, saying that he donated $1000 to the Australian Red Cross and encouraged viewers to donate as well.

Journalism

In November 2023, Oliveira released a video covering drug decriminalization in Vancouver, Canada. A British Columbia representative, Elenore Sturko, appeared near the end of the video, where she criticized the lack of involuntary care in British Columbia. After the publication of the video, she labeled the entire video "inaccurate and exploitative". She alleged that she was filmed without her consent, although an advocate from the Overdose Prevention Society questioned this allegation. A man was filmed while suffering from a drug overdose without his consent, which a harm reduction and recovery expert called disgusting. Several harm reduction advocates criticized a different portion of the video filmed by YouTuber and homeless service provider Kevin Dahlgren, purportedly in an overdose prevention site, which they said was actually a homeless shelter. In a National Post op-ed, Colby Cosh defended Oliveira's video as both legal and ethical and criticized CTV News (which published several criticisms of Oliveira) for "discouraging competitors" in journalism. Oliveira said in response to criticism "If our documentary prevented a single child from going down this same life path, then I have succeeded."

In March 2024, Oliveira interviewed the Whittakers, a family described as "America’s most inbred". YouTuber Mark Laita had previously interviewed the Whittakers and created a GoFundMe account purportedly to help the family buy a house. Oliveira questioned whether the money raised was actually given to the Whittakers. Laita responded with a video showcasing several bank transactions between him and the Whittakers and argued that their lives were significantly better after the fundraiser. Laita ended the fundraiser and said that he would be stepping back from filming the family. A.W. Ohlheiser, writing for Vox, labeled the genre of both YouTubers "poverty porn" and argued that such content left viewers entertained rather than encouraging them to attack structures that lead to poverty.

In September 2024, Oliveira posted on X several interviews of Springfield, Ohio residents about Haitian residents in the city. Several interviewees repeated stories of Haitians eating pets without evidence, and one interviewee told Oliveira that he saw police pull over Haitian immigrants with a hundred cats in a white van who admitted that they were eating them, a claim not corroborated by the police. He posted a video to YouTube about Springfield shortly after, with AI-generated images and memes interspersed between interviews, gaining 4.5 million views within ten days. The video also featured recordings unrelated to Springfield, including the arrest of a woman in Canton, Ohio for eating a cat and gang members marching in a street in Haiti. A Haitian interviewee said that he was falsely portrayed as a reckless driver, and the cover image featured a different Haitian man that was altered to show the man holding a cat. In one video published by Olivera, an interviewee called his Haitian neighbor a racial slur. Several news outlets noted Oliveira as a part of a larger trend of right-wing influencers who traveled to Springfield based on false allegations of Haitian immigrants eating pets.

Style

Oliveira's investigations generally focus on areas considered impoverished or dangerous and include man-on-the-street interviews. His most popular videos frequently feature non-consensual recordings of homeless people having mental breakdowns and suffering from drug addictions. Ohlheiser compared Oliveira's style to that of MrBeast, arguing that Oliveira used "shock and extravagance" to attract viewers.

References

1. Oliveira, Tyler (October 2, 2024). 🚨 Breaking: Charleroi Pennsylvania Update (Video). Event occurs at 2:58.
2. ^ "About @TylerOliveira". YouTube.
3. Oliveira, Tyler (April 7, 2024). I Investigated the City of Sëggz Offenders… (Video).
4. ^ Ohlheiser, A.W. (March 21, 2024). "The latest drama in "poverty porn" YouTube, explained". Vox. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
5. Ellis, Philip (November 28, 2019). "Watch What Happened When This Guy Trained Like 'One Punch Man' for 100 Days". Men's Health. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
6. Ellis, Philip (April 17, 2020). "This Guy Destroyed Himself Running on a Treadmill for 24 Hours Straight". Men's Health. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
7. Ellis, Philip (May 7, 2020). "Watch These Guys Attempt to Bench Press Their Own Bodyweight Underwater". Men's Health. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
8. Ellis, Philip (May 10, 2020). "Watch What Happened When This Guy Did 30 CrossFit 'Murph' Workouts in 30 Days". Men's Health. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
9. Ellis, Philip (January 15, 2021). "Watch What Happened When This Guy Tried to Become a Champion Boxer in Just 30 Days". Men's Health. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
10. ^ Ritschel, Chelsea (January 15, 2020). "YouTuber criticised for using '100,000 rolls of paper towels' to soak up a pool". The Independent. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
11. ^ Lee, Alicia (January 19, 2020). "YouTuber who tried to soak up a pool with 100,000 paper towels criticized for wasting 100,000 paper towels". CNN. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
12. Oliveira, Tyler (November 2, 2023). I Investigated the Country Where Every Drug is Legal... (Video).
13. ^ Weichel, Andrew (November 13, 2023). "B.C. MLA says she didn't agree to appear in 'exploitative' drug crisis video". CTV News. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
14. Zavarise, Isabella (December 4, 2023). "'It's unethical': Man filmed having an overdose urges people to stop recording residents on DTES". CTV News. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
15. Cosh, Colby (December 7, 2023). "Colby Cosh: CTV stands against journalism if it shows the misery of drug use". National Post. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
16. Krishnan, Manisha (December 7, 2023). "'It's Disgusting': Viral Overdose Videos Are Hurting People at Their Lowest Moments". Vice. Retrieved December 19, 2024.
17. Cailler, Adam; Smith, Reanna (August 29, 2024). "Inside squalid home of 'America's most inbred' family the Whittaker's as donations cut off". Daily Mirror. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
18. ^ Horn, Dan; Moorwood, Victoria (September 18, 2024). "How right-wing social media took false claims about Haitians eating pets to the debate". Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
19. ^ Jingnan, Huo; Nguyen, Audrey; Joffe-Block, Jude (September 20, 2024). "How influencers flocked to Springfield chasing debunked rumors and attention". NPR. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
20. Oliveira, Tyler (September 10, 2024). Inside the Ohio Town Invaded by "Cat-Eating" Haitians (Video).
21. ^ Valle, Gaby Del (September 12, 2024). "Right-wingers can't get enough of anti-Haitian AI disinformation". The Verge. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
22. Figueroa, Jocelyn (December 4, 2024). "Bad Journalism is Bad for Homeless People". Invisible People.

• American YouTubers
• 2000 births
• Living people
• YouTube channels launched in 2018