Disney’s Maker Studios and Google’s YouTube are distancing themselves from the YouTube star known as PewDiePie after he made jokes construed as anti-Semitic and posted Nazi imagery in his videos.
Felix Kjellberg has the most popular YouTube channel, with more than 53 million subscribers. The Swedish YouTube star rose to fame by posting videos of himself playing and commenting about video games. More recently, he branched out into nongaming videos that show him performing skits and stunts or making jokes.
Disney, whose Maker Studios runs Kjellberg’s channels and network, said he crossed the line with some of his videos. One video from January shows two Indian men paid by Kjellberg to hold up a sign that says “Death to all Jews.” Kjellberg said the video was meant to demonstrate how far people will go for money, but he didn’t think the men would actually do it. Other videos show Nazi imagery in a satirical way.
Maker Studios said in a statement that although Kjellberg’s channel is popular because he is irreverent and provocative, the studio is ending its affiliation with him because he went too far.
YouTube spokeswoman Michelle Slavich said YouTube has canceled the release of the second season of Kjellberg’s reality show “Scare PewDiePie” and removed the PewDiePie channel from its Google Preferred advertising program, which aggregates top YouTube content for advertisers to buy time on.
Kjellberg said in a blog post that he was making jokes but realizes now that they were offensive.
His channel was already part of Maker Studios when Walt Disney Co. bought Maker in 2014 for $675 million. Maker contracts with individuals such as Kjellberg to produce videos for various YouTube channels.
Kjellberg pulled the video showing the two men displaying the anti-Semitic sign, but it is excerpted in a Wall Street Journal video. Other videos still on the site show Nazi imagery being used satirically.
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