To some people, their life on the internet is more than almost anything. And this can make them go to great length to pursue something, and to simply change course if things won't look the way they want to their online fans.
Nikki and Dan Phillippi are YouTube influencers.
The couple landed in controversy after their video titled "We're not adopting from Thailand anymore" resurfaced on social media.
In the 26-minute video, the couple detailed the reason behind their decision not to adopt a baby from Thailand. At first, the husband and wife were thrilled to adopt a child. However, they quickly changed their minds after realizing that they couldn't show the child on social media due to regulations mandated by the Thai government.
“Nikki’s got a YouTube channel,” Dan said in the video. “We share a whole lot.”
“When that hit we literally were like ‘Oh what?’ So we were like going round the houses like trying to figure out how this could work like ‘Hashtag baby blur face,'" Nikki added.
Although not being able to share her child on social media was a factor, the couple said that the other main factor of them deciding against adopting were the possibility of the adoption not being final for up to a year and potentially jeopardizing other families’ adoptions.
"I almost Snapchatted while I was signing an NDA once,” Nikki said. “I’m going to totally mess up, and then I’ll ruin it for other families.”
"It came down to I could make some people mad or there could be cultural differences that end up making someone decide, ‘Oh we actually don’t want you to have our kids, so they’re coming home.”
The couple feared that by accidentally disregarding the rules, they could ruin the adoption agency's relationship with Thailand.
Because the couple didn't feel comfortable with the prospects, and fear the Thai government's involvement in the child's post-adoption, the couple decided to not adopt the child.
“We just want the ability to do what we want to do without possibly causing harm or repercussions to other people and an entire organization for that matter."
It should be noted that four months later, the couple made made yet another video announcing that they were no longer adopting from Korea too.
“Our adoption agency strongly feels that a Korean judge will not approve an adoption for us because of how public we are in our advocacy for adoption,” Nikki said:
While they reflected on their Thailand adoption decision in another video in 2019, and said that they have matured since then, people were not happy with the couple’s actions.
Because many people started flooding the comment boxes with hatred, the couple had to turn the commenting feature off.
While the video was made years back, it has only resurfaced by some people who wanted to point out how problematic the couple's content has been.
"Friendly reminder that Nikki Phillippi and her husband didn’t adopt a child from Thailand solely because the Thailand government ruled that they weren’t allowed to exploit their child by filming them or posting photos of them online. Just saying," one person tweeted.
"Let’s also not forget that Nikki Phillippi decided not to adopt or take in a foster child after they were told they couldn’t display them all over YouTube for money. Are we surprised? No. Disappointed? Yes," tweeted another.
The backlash came weeks after Nikki and Dan Phillippi admitted to putting down their healthy Bull Terrier that they had for 10 years.
“We have some really sad news,” Nikki wrote to her 434,000 followers in an Instagram post, before explaining that Bowser, the couple's dog, has to be euthanized after it bit their son, Logan.
“Bowser had an aggressive side that reared its ugly head a few times over the years and recently he bit Logan,” she continued. “After a lot of counsel, we decided it was time for Bowser to pass peacefully on. We didn’t want to make this decision, as I’m sure you can imagine."
“I’m not kidding when I say this was one of the saddest days of my life," Nikki added.
Before euthanizing Bowser, she said that she and her husband did try to re-home the dog, but were advised that he was too old to be adopted.
