Prominent British YouTube celebrity Sam Pepper has seemingly "quit the Internet".
He has deleted all his YouTube videos and Instagram posts, posts from his Instagram account, and all his tweets but one, dated 21 February, which simply says "I give up". Pepper has also changed all social network profile and cover pictures to a plain black block.
The social media celebrity, who also appeared on a season of Big Brother UK, has nearly 2.3 million subscribers and over 203 million video views on YouTube.
While Pepper's name may only be instantly recognised within the circles of YouTube stardom and English youth pop culture, his notorious "prank" videos - and subsequent accusations relating to his personal life - have made international headlines in the past.
Pepper's departure is commonly speculated to be at least partly a result of a 2015 Change.org petition to deactivate his account after Pepper posted a "prank" video in which he tricked Vine star Sam Golbach into believing he was being kidnapped and watching his best friend and fellow Vine star, Colby Brock, being murdered.
Pepper "clearly doesn't understand boundaries or have any respect for those people who have lost their lives and believes that murder can be staged as a prank... [the video] appears to mirror situations where people really have got killed," wrote petition creator Kaylee-Jade Davis.
The petition amassed over 220 000 signatures.
Pepper also drew widespread criticism in late 2014 following a video he titled "Fake hand ass pinch prank", during which he approached women on the street asking for directions or the time, and pinched their bums while their backs were turned, secretly filming the encounters and making light of their fright and discomfort.
#ReportSamPepper trended on Twitter after the video was posted, encouraging users to report the video to YouTube for violating its terms of use by means of sexual abuse.
The furore prompted numerous young women to come forward, both openly and anonymously, alleging Pepper had raped, sexually assaulted, or sexually harassed them. Many of the women were under 18 at the time of the abuse, some under 16.
A rare victory
While Pepper is by no means the first YouTuber to "quit the Internet", his departure can be seen as a rare victory for users who call out and protest abusive behaviour, such as sexual harassment and assault, online, and are often harassed themselves for speaking up.
"Sam Pepper deleted all his videos. #mondaymotivation," tweeted Laci Green (@gogreen18), a YouTuber who creates sex education content for her personal channel and for MTV.
"Sam Pepper gave up? Looks like the people he sexually assaulted on camera finally won," tweeted YouTuber @Onision.
Meanwhile, optimistic fans and pessimistic critics of Pepper speculated the disappearance could merely be another one of his "pranks".
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