PewDiePie has 53 million subscribers on YouTube, a chunk of unique content network, YouTube Red, and is associated with Disney's Maker Studios brand, where he has his own network. But, that latter affiliation is now over after Wall Street Journal revealed nine videos in which the Swedish star - real name Felix Kjellberg - posted anti-Semitic clips or Nazi-related imageries.
Pewdiepie Posted Ani-Seminitic Clips?
Three videos issued in January have since been removed from the channel. They contained within one skit in which Kjellberg paid a Sri Lanka-based group of men to hold up a sign that read "Death to All Jews," whereas another featured a clip of a man dressed as Jesus saying that "Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong." Kjellberg used freelance job finding site Fiverr for both clips. He reasoned that he wasn't stern either and instead he wanted to show the things people will do for cash.
Maker Studios, which was assimilated by Disney in 2014, told Wall Street Journal that it would finish its connection with him. "Although Felix has created a succeeding by being provocative and irreverent, he went too far in this case and resulting videos are unfitting," a spokesperson said. It's worth noting that YouTube removed P.R. from one of the videos, but it did not act against others nor did it take away any of the videos.
YouTube Didn't Respond To A Request For Comment
Writing on his Tumblr blog, Kjellberg - who rose to admiration thanks to videos about gaming and pranks - said the purpose of the examples was "to show how senseless the world today is, just some of the facilities available online."
"I picked to some degree that seemed illogical to me-That people on Fiverr would say anything for 5 dollars," he added. "I think it's imperative to say something and I want to make one thing clear: I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes."
"I make videos for my audience. I think of the script that I create is entertaining, and not a place for any serious political annotation. I know my audience understand that and that is why they come to my channel. Though it was not my intent, I recognize that these jokes were ultimately offensive," he continued.
Youtube Practice Of Disclosure Is A Must
Last year, Warner Brothers was fined for failing to sufficiently disclose payments to YouTube stars like PewDiePie. The star hit back at mass media for what he called exaggerating of the incident, which took place in 2014."Yes, I could have disclosed it better. I could have put it above the fold... Fundamentally, all these news articles are using me as a clickbait, putting my name to shame when I didn't even do anything wrong," he said.
