Pewdiepie Make America Great Again Hat

The Walt Disney Visitor, owner of Maker Studios, tells the Wall Street Journal it has ended its relationship with YouTube glory Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg over a serial of anti-Semitic videos.

The videos in question, some of which have been pulled downward already, are baroque. One features individuals in Bharat holding upward a sign that reads "expiry to all Jews." Another includes Nazi imagery, including "a man dressed equally Jesus Christ saying, 'Hitler did admittedly nothing wrong.'" Some date back as far as August. Below is a video compilation the Journal put together. It includes scenes from videos since pulled downward from his YouTube channel.

"Wearing a 'Make America Great Again' chapeau from President Donald Trump'south campaign, Mr. Kjellberg used a photo of Hitler as a segue between clips," the Wall Street Journal writes. "Mr. Kjellberg says the textile is portrayed in jest. He showed a prune from a Hitler speech in a Sept. 24 video criticizing a YouTube policy, posted swastikas drawn past his fans on Oct. fifteen and watched a Hitler video in a brown military compatible to conclude a Dec. 8 video. He besides played the Nazi Political party anthem before bowing to a swastika in a mock resurrection ritual on Jan. 14, and included a very cursory Nazi salute with a Hitler voice-over maxim 'Sieg Heil' and the text 'Nazi Confirmed' near the beginning of a February. five video."

Maker Studios, which was purchased by Disney most three years ago, has removed all reference to Kjellberg from its website. He remains far and away the most popular unmarried personality on YouTube, with more than 53 million subscribers. Ane sponsor, game cardinal marketplace G2A, still lists him on its website, and ads for the service still run on his channel.

An official description of the G2A service prominently shows Kjellberg as the linchpin of its promotional strategy on YouTube.

G2A

"Although Felix has created a following past being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went besides far in this case," a representative of Maker Studios told the Wall Street Periodical. "The resulting videos are inappropriate."

Yesterday, Kjellberg posted to Tumblr what appears to be an apology for the videos, or at least the attending they've garnered.

"Some have been pointing to my videos and saying that I am giving credibility to the anti-Semitic movement," the post states. " I was trying to prove how crazy the modern earth is, specifically some of the services bachelor online.

A video from Kjellberg'southward channel on Sept. 24 features the YouTube star in a Donald Trump hat watching scenes of Adolf Hitler in his studio. It has 4.4 million views at the time of publication.

PewDiePie/YouTube

"I think information technology's important to say something and I want to brand 1 thing clear: I am in no manner supporting any kind of mean attitudes. ... I make videos for my audience. I think of the content that I create as amusement, and not a identify for whatever serious political commentary. I know my audience sympathise that and that is why they come up to my channel. Though this was not my intention, I sympathise that these jokes were ultimately offensive."

This may be a reference to Kjellberg'south sudden popularity on the prominent neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. The Wall Street Periodical reports that the site changed its motto to "the world's #1 PewDiePie fansite" in January, soon after his videos were posted.

Polygon has reached out to Disney, Maker Studios, YouTube, G2A and Kjellberg for comment.

Update: YouTube has canceled the second season of Kjellberg's YouTube series.

"We've decided to cancel the release of Scare PewDiePie Season two," a YouTube representative told Polygon, "and we're removing the PewDiePie channel from Google Preferred."

Update two: Advertising partner G2A responded with the following statement.

PewDiePie is a charismatic and extremely popular entertainer who, similar every entertainer out there, is sometimes surrounded by controversies. PewDiePie has his own specific way of entertainment which, similar with any of our partners, at times we concur with and at times we don't.

We absolutely do not condone nor support insensitive behavior of any kind — exist information technology racist, anti-Semitic, or discriminatory in whatsoever way.

This time PewDiePie's video unfortunately went too far — and his actions in it were simply incorrect. With that being said, we also have known and worked with PewDiePie for a number of years and know he is neither anti-Semitic, nor did he mean to offend anyone with his actions. He understands his mistake, as he has removed the offensive material from his channel.

PewDiePie has done a lot of skillful with his fame over the years — helping raise money for many causes and charities including WWF, St. Jude'south hospital, Make-a-Wish Foundation and many others, and has worked with us personally to raise funds for Relieve the Children. It would be unfair to estimate him based on 1 mistake and not take his positive deportment into account.

Update 3: On Thursday, Kjellberg posted a video in which he blamed the media for misrepresenting him, reserving scorn for the Journal which initially presented his work to Disney and YouTube. Although he did apologize for offending viewers, he went on to defend his power to "joke about annihilation."

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2017/2/13/14605188/pewdiepie-disney-anti-semitism

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