Sam Pepper
The YouTube vlogger has made his channel content private. Youtube

YouTube star Sam Pepper has stunned fans and critics alike by deleting his Twitter account and making his video content private. The controversial vlogger and prankster, who currently boasts over 2.3 million YouTube subscribers, said goodbye to social media with a single tweet that read: "i give up."

The departure comes weeks after Pepper provoked online uproar with a prank video titled Killing Best Friend, featuring the staged kidnap and "murder" of a young man in front of his mate. The disturbing five-minute clip faced a barrage of criticism from viewers, and a subsequent petition calling for YouTube to deactivate Pepper's channel received 200,000 signatures.

In the wake of the backlash Pepper, from Folkestone, Kent, told the Metro: "I don't think that I'm hated by that many people. I've got over two million YouTube subscribers and one million Twitter followers.

"No-one's ever come up to me in the street and told me they hate me – everyone's normally asking me for photos.

"What [everyone's] feeling is just right now. I used to work in customer service and it's only the bad experiences people will tell others about. People will always think about the bad points."

Despite previously being accused of sexual harassment, the 26-year-old was in spotlight in 2014 after posting a video on his YouTube channel called his Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank. He later claimed the video was "staged and scripted".

While some members of the online community claimed that it was simply a publicity stunt, others admitted that they were pleased to see the former Big Brother contestant go.

Watch the Killing Best Friend Prank here:

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