Add this to the list of things you didn’t expect to see online this week — Attila frontman Chris Fronzak is beefing with MrBeast on social media over his newly-announced Team Water campaign.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is a businessman and philanthropist whose YouTube channel has more subscribers than any other account on the platform (419 million). He’s also the creator of the competition show Beast Games and a myriad of other projects.
Earlier this month, MrBeast and fellow YouTuber Mark Rober announced a new campaign called Team Water in collaboration with WaterAid. The proposal aims to raise $40 million to provide quality water access to 2 million people in need for several decades.
Fronzak called out MrBeast’s campaign in a social media post yesterday (Aug. 4), alleging that the “idea already failed.”
“I see a lot of discourse about this, but NO ONE is mentioning the fact that Mr. Beast went to Africa and built 100 wells in 2023 and they all failed one year later due to lack of maintenance. I believe everyone should always help other people, but this idea already failed?,” he wrote.
MrBeast, who has 33 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), caught wind of Fronzak’s claim and refuted it, calling the singer’s statement a “flat out lie.”
“That’s literally a flat out lie. We recently had the 100 wells audited because of these false rumors (which erodes trust in philanthropic efforts and is not cool) and the wells are working…,” MrBeast responded.
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Fronzak then posed a challenge to the entrepreneur, pledging to pay money toward the campaign if he delivers the proof.
“Okay! Send me the audit that shows that ALL 100 wells are still working today and I’ll send $5,000 to your new water project,” the singer replied.
What Happened to the Wells MrBeast Built in Africa in 2023?
In November of 2023, MrBeast uploaded a video to his YouTube channel declaring that he’d built 100 wells in Africa. Located in Cameroon, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Zimbabwe, the wells were constructed to provide clean drinking water for up to 500,000 people [via CNN].
This past June, rumors that the wells hadn’t been properly maintained went viral online. MrBeast shut down the claims on his X account.
“Random person makes a brand new TikTok account, makes a video that’s a straight up lie about the wells I built, and now you’re all falling for it. THIS IS NOT A REAL NEWS SITE THIS IS A RANDOM BRAND NEW TIK TOK ACCOUNT COSPLAYING AS ONE! I’m so over being defamed,” he wrote.
See the post below.