Warning: This article contains allegations of grooming which some readers may find distressing.
They say you can't keep a YouTuber down, and when you have nearly two million subscribers on your channel, you can understand why they'd want to make the most of their internet notoriety. There are plenty of controversial YouTubers out there, and a quick scroll of most content cretors who are popular enough to have their own Wikipedia page will likely include a 'Controversies' section.
Still, few are as reviled among the YouTube community as James "Onision" Jackson. Once known for his channel of parody video and the likes of "Banana Song (I'm a Banana)", things turned in 2019 when Jackson was banned from Patreon amidst allegations of grooming and manipulation into a sexual relationship.
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The release of the 2021 documentary called Onision: In Real Life then led to him being indefinitely suspended from YouTube's partner program, meaning he was unable to monetize his videos.
In a bizarre turn of events, it looks like Jackson is back on YouTube with a series of new videos. He's been posting regularly for a while now, with "Why I'm Back (Onision)" being released on August 17.
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The past few days has seen an influx of new videos with titles like "Memorial" and one about humanity to going to Mars.
Reddit has spotted that Onision has returned, although it doesn't seem like you're happy. Discussing Jackson's return, one user said: "Why he still has almost 2 mil subscribers is beyond me after all what he did...."
Responding to his impressive subscriber count, someone suggested that a lot of these people might not realize they're subbed to him or could've simply moved on from those accounts.
Someone else added, "Wow that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while," and another responded, "Wish I didn't hear it for even longer."
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Mainly, there are many asking how and why Jackson is returning to YouTube under his Onision account. We guess the subscriber count probably has something to do with that.
Jackson has disabled the dislike counter on his videos, but if you check the metrics, an October 20 video about the future of AI and the human species has only received 1,364 views.
A separate Reddit thread asking which YouTuber you'd ban for life came up with suggestions including Jack Doherty in the aftermath of his McLaren crash, SSSniperwolf after she doxxed YouTuber jacksfilms, and even MrBeast amidst claims he's 'ruined' the way people make content for YouTube.
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Of course, Onision also made the cut. When one suggested, "F**king Onision," another added, "Yes crazy how youtube knows what he did and he is still allowed to post videos."
While it's unclear what the intentions behind Onision's current content burst is, his videos are a far cry from the kind of ones he used to post. For him, though, it looks like YouTube community never forgets.