TikTok removed several transphobic videos about MrBeast's friend and fellow YouTuber Chris Tyson after they announced their hormone replacement therapy

• MrBeast star Chris Tyson recently announced that they're undergoing hormone replacement therapy.

• Tyson's announcement was met with criticism and transphobia on platforms like TikTok and Twitter.

• When reached, a TikTok spokesperson told Insider the company has removed a handful of videos with such rhetoric.

TikTok removed a handful of transphobic videos about Chris Tyson, a well-known childhood friend of YouTube titan MrBeast and who is an influencer themself, after they announced they were on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) last week.

After Insider reached out to the platform for comment about eight viral videos that mocked Tyson's more feminine look, a TikTok spokesperson said they removed these videos for violating its community policy against hateful behavior.

In a series of tweets last week, the 26-year-old announced that they'd been undergoing HRT for the last two months, and tweeted that "informed consent HRT" saved their life. Tyson's social media accounts now say they now go by "any pronouns."

In further tweets, Tyson wrote that they were nervous about coming out like this publicly, even though they were glad to be able to inform people about the benefits of HRT. Gender-affirming healthcare has been a hot-button issue over the last year, with right-leaning states actively trying to ban those who seek gender-transitioning resources, like hormone therapy.

Since Tyson's announcement, several videos and tweets have gone viral mocking and denigrating his new appearance. The eight videos Insider flagged had garnered over a million views cumulatively.

In one of the clips, which had amassed at least 150,000 likes and hundreds of thousands of views as of Tuesday, on-screen text read, "How did Chris go from this to this," while showing images of Tyson before starting HRT and after.

Several other videos were captioned with messages like "I miss the old Chris" and "I hate the new Chris." One of these videos had amassed over 700,000 views and over 50,000 likes before it was removed by TikTok. Some clips featured pictures of Tyson with their child, with on-screen text from creators that they "felt bad" or "felt sad" for the child.

The comment sections on these videos have also been indundated with similar bigoted remarks. Several comments said Tyson would never pass as a woman, and one comment with over 2,700 likes demanded that Tyson be kicked out of the MrBeast crew.

When reached for comment, linking to these video examples, a TikTok spokesperson said they've removed the content for violating the company's community guideline on "hateful behavior," which prohibits harassment against protected attributes, like gender and sexual orientation.

"Just for clarity, removing the video also removes all comments on it, so those have also been removed," they said in an email statement.

Tyson, who has over 2.7 million followers on Instagram and Twitter respectively, is known for being a close friend of the YouTuber MrBeast, who is the most popular YouTuber in the world with over 140 million subscribers. Tyson last appeared in a livestream with the star on Saturday that featured them opening a thousand mystery art boxes from fans.

While fans are grappling with Tyson's announcement — some harmfully, Donaldson and other members of MrBeast's team have only expressed support for their peer.

Insider has reached out to Tyson and MrBeast's team for comment.

Read the original article on Insider