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Tuesday, February 14, 2017

The Gist

Disney drops YouTube star PewDiePie over anti-Semitic videos

Posted By Deanna Ferrante on Tue, Feb 14, 2017 at 10:59 AM

click to enlarge

Photo via PewDiePie Youtube

With over 14 billion views, Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is one of the most-watched YouTube stars of all time, and a part of the Disney family.

Well, apparently he's also a racist.

Disney-owned Maker Studios dropped Kjellberg from its roster after he made anti-Semitic jokes in some of his video content.

According to Variety, Kjelberg uploaded multiple videos with with anti-Semitic jokes in January. One of the videos featured two men from India that Kjelberg paid through a crowd-sourcing platform to hold up a sign that read "Death to all Jews."

A spokesperson from Maker Studios sent Variety the following statement:

“Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate. Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward.”

Maker Studios is a global digital media brand and the original creator network owned by The Walt Disney Company. It is home to Kjelberg's media brand Revelmode, which created PewDiePie's Tumblr Simulator, an app that rose to No. 1 in the App Store.

Variety reports that after the video was released, Google responded by pulling advertisement from the offensive clip, but Kjelberg defended the stunt as a "joke" in his next video.

Both videos have since been removed from his channel.

Kjelberg defended himself in a post on his Tumblr, saying, "Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive."

Tags: PewDiePie, anti-semitism, Youtube, Maker Studios, Disney, Image

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