Who is Olivia Jade? YouTuber receives backlash amid college bribery scandal

Olivia Jade, a popular YouTuber with almost 2 million subscribers, is suddenly at the center of massive controversy, and even legal trouble, after her mother, actress Lori Loughlin, allegedly paid bribes of $500,000 to get her daughter into a prestigious college.

Known for makeup, fashion and lifestyle videos, Olivia Jade was a rising star on YouTube, but now her channel is being flooded with dislikes, and comments have been disabled on all of her uploads.

Making matters worse, in one vlog, Jade states that she “doesn’t really care about school”, despite attending the University of Southern California (USC) on what now appears to be dubious grounds.

It is claimed that the bribes of up to $500,000 were paid by her mother, famous actress Lori Loughlin (best known for her role in sitcom Full House), to get Olivia and her sister, Isabella, into USC on a rowing team scholarship.

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However, neither sister actually participates in the sport. Olivia and Isabella have not been charged by authorities, but parents Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Since the news broke, Olivia’s latest YouTube video has been ‘disliked’ over 12,000 times, eclipsing the number of total ‘likes’ it had before the scandal was publicized.

It’s not all bad news though, as the attention has helped her gain over 6,000 new subscribers in only two days – before the channel would only attract 300-500 new subscribers a day, according to SocialBlade.

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Her Twitter account too has also been boosted, with 8,000 new followers in two days, but it’s not necessarily the kind of followers she will want to attract, as Twitter has been particularly negative towards to social media star.

Lori Loughlin was released on $1 million bail on March 14, after appearing in court on Wednesday, March 13. Fellow actress Felicity Huffman is also charged with similar offences, as she apparently paid $15,000 for her daughter’s SAT to be corrected where wrong answers had been given.