An influencer who bought 50 Big Macs for the homeless has been forced to defend herself from trolls claiming she only did it to gain followers.
Sophia Begg, from Australia, bought $322.50 (£176.76) from McDonald's over the weekend.
In a video shared to TikTok, she explained she was taking the food to homeless charity Will2Live.
The 17-year-old said she was “killing two birds with one stone” as the food had been bought on McHappy Day when $2 (£1.10) from each of the Big Macs is donated to sick children.
But her kind-hearted gesture was bizarrely slammed by critics online.
Many accused her of using the donation as a means to gain followers, with one person writing: “Not sure what giving out burgers to the homeless would achieve.”
Others suggested she should have just given the money she’d spent on the burgers to the charity.
After she was bombarded by the negative comments, Sophia responded in a second video where she said the amount of hate she had received “was ridiculous”.
“Everyone is saying that I should’ve just donated directly and it was a waste,” she said in the clip.
“I ended up supporting two charities at once through buying a Big Mac for McHappy Day and giving them to the homeless.”
She added she had often donated to the Ronald McDonald house.
“When I was younger I used to donate food and milk to the house every week and go deliver it. I shaved my head in Year 6 on Channel 7 to raise money. And I sell all my clothes and give 100% of the proceeds to Ronald McDonald House. I just think it’s ridiculous that I’m getting hate.
“Also a lot of the people were saying like, ‘Oh yeah, you did this just for TikTok, you did this for content … Sure I could have donated directly, but the whole point in my head was to use my platform to make people aware of McHappy Day.
“I thought it would be a waste of my platform not to share something like this that is so close to my heart … I just feel like I’ve been getting so much hate.”
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