The fashion app Dote has been criticized for instigating discrimination during the many brand influencer trips they take with young social media stars.

After a sponsored trip to Coachella, youtuber Danielle Perkins first spoke out in a video about the details as to why she felt discriminated against during the trip. She hints at segregated room arrangements by saying that white influencers were at the other side of the house.

As more youtubers, began to speak out about their issues with the Coachella trip, others commented on trips dating back to August 2018. Kianna Naomi spoke about her trip to Fiji, where she, the only non-mixed African American woman, and her roommate Lisette, who was also a woman of color, felt they had not received equal treatment.

Naomi describes a photoshoot which was organized as a result of complaints from girls about not getting photographed during scheduled shoots. She continues to describe the shoot as careless, stating that the girls were clumped together and not given direction by photographers.

In a conversation with Naomi, Lisette states, “We were dancing, and one of [the photographers] goes, ‘oh, let me get the black girls on film dancing’. They know everyone else’s names but not ours.”

Dote has faced further criticism for their approach to the issue. Their posted apology contained several grammatical errors, leading many to believe they were apathetic to the problem. After the allegations, their instagram page, which had previously been dominated by famous white influencers, became filled with pictures of minorities. Under one of these pictures captioned, “this is what dote looks like”, one commenter wrote, “You can’t just put a bunch of girls in a room with some balloons and instantly rebrand. Slow down.”.

The brand has been known to work with popular youtubers such as Emma Chamberlain, who ended her collaboration with Dote prior to the scandal, Hannah Meloche, Summer Mckeen, and other influencers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Since the exploitation of the alleged segregation, YouTubers Summer Mckeen, Ava Jules, and Ellie Thumann claim to have ended their partnership with the company.