Petition to ban Perez Hilton from TikTok started after he mocks teen sensation Charli D'Amelio's dance in bikini
Perez Hilton, the celebrity gossip reporter and blogger recently found himself in hot waters after he started using his popular blog and YouTube channel to discuss some of the biggest stars on TikTok, a platform that is mostly favored by the Gen Z. A petition to ban him from the social media platform started after his comments about 15-year-old Charli D'Amelio, the most-followed person on the app.
There is a reason that most gossip columnists have preferred to stay away from publicly remarking on TikTok users — a majority of the account holders are minors. But that did not stop 42-year-old Hilton, whose real name is Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr.
His behavior has been deemed creepy by many.
On April 21, a petition was created on Change.org calling for Hilton's removal from TikTok. "His whole career is based off of creating drama — which is something we seriously don't need right now," the petition said. "Perez is a middle-aged man and earns a living by attacking young kids for just having fun. CANCEL HIM, or at least BAN HIM from Tiktok."
As of the time of writing this article, the petition had already gathered nearly 100,000 signatures, with the target being 150,000.
It all started with the openly gay blogger commenting on D'Amelio's March 3 TikTok Video. In the video, the teen was dancing on a beach while vacationing in the Bahamas, wearing a bikini. While dancing, she mouthed the words to a remix of the song 'Sugar' by Brockhampton, which made references to sexual activity.
"Anyone else think it's inappropriate for a 15-year-old to dance to this?" Hilton commented on the video, to which D'Amelio replied, "i'm sorry i'm just trying to have fun! :)."
What followed was an array of weird explanations by Hilton as to why he dropped that comment on D'Amelio's video after her fans started calling him out the platform for criticizing the way the teen dressed. "Imagine coming after a 15-year-old trying to have fun," a person wrote, to which Hilton clarified that he was not judging D'Amelio for wearing a bikini, but rather "questioned her parents' decisions."
To another user, he replied saying, he wished he "looked that good in a bikini at 15."
As he continued to be slammed on TikTok, he offered to explain his comments further during a live-stream on YouTube on March 5. "These people still are letting me have it over me asking a question on the biggest TikToker of the moment's account when she did a video earlier this week gyrating, moving in an adult way to a song about taking big D!" he said. "All I asked was, is it appropriate of her to be doing this? My main issue was with her parents, not her!"
Soon after, D'Amelio responded to Hilton's comments via a tweet that said, "i will continue to post when i feel happy and confident so if me wearing a swimsuit at the beach is a problem well sucks to suck doesn't it."
However, even then Hilton refused to let the issue go and further fueled the feud when he made a TikTok video about D'Amelio and her father on March 7, which he later uploaded on his YouTube channel. He said that he did not regret his comments about the "sexual" clip and the teen's "gyrating" dance moves. "I think Charli's a sweet girl, and talented. My real issue is with her parents," said the father of three.
He also brought up the fact that D'Amelio's father had been arrested on drunk driving charges in 2014. The charges were dropped after he agreed to participate in a diversion program. "His daughter was in the car when he was arrested for drunk driving," he said. "This explains so much."
The particular news got a lot of coverage back in 2018 when D'Amelio's father was running for a seat in the Connecticut state Senate. "I've already taken responsibility five years ago," he said at the time. Although it was never confirmed in reports as to which daughter was in the car with him when the incident happened, they did mention that his daughter was nine years old at the time. Charli D'Amelio was nine years old in 2014.
Hilton also dove into D'Amelio's rumored relationship issues with her then-boyfriend Chase Hudson on April 1. He alleged that Hudson, 17, had cheated on D'Amelio. "He even sent nudes," Hilton said, although the allegations were never confirmed by any of the parties involved. The pair eventually announced their breakup on their respective Instagram Stories on April 14.