First, some background on Felix Kjellberg (a.k.a. "Pewdiepie"): He's a 27-year-old Swedish man who dominates YouTube. His channel has over 53 million subscribers — over 20 million more than the second-most popular channel.
He rose to prominence by doing "Let's Play" videos — playing video games while commentating, and often over-exaggerating his reactions:
But lately he's transitioned into a prolific critic as well. The target of his criticism? The very hand that feeds him: YouTube.
That criticism culminated in a stunt late last year where Kjellberg claimed he would shut down his YouTube channel when it surpassed 50 million subscribers:
Turns out he was just joshin'. Kjellberg didn't shut down his Pewdiepie account — he shut down another YouTube account he owned (with far fewer subscribers, naturally):
Kjellberg mostly stayed out of headlines following that December 2016 stunt. Then, on February 13, the Wall Street Journal posted a piece titled, "Disney Severs Ties With YouTube Star PewDiePie After Anti-Semitic Posts."
The piece highlighted several instances where Kjellberg used anti-Semitic language or imagery in videos. The WSJ then contacted Disney, the parent company of Maker Studios, to ask about those instances — Kjellberg and Maker Studios formed a joint venture to create video content. That venture is now off.
"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," a spokeswoman for Maker Studios told Business Insider. "Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward."
The next day, YouTube itself cut ties with Kjellberg.
Though Kjellberg's Pewdiepie account is still active and he's able to earn ad revenue from ads run over his videos, YouTube (the company) has cut ties with Kjellberg. Specifically, the company is canceling plans to create a second season of the show "Scare Pewdiepie" — a show funded by YouTube intended for the company's paid platform, YouTube Red.
The Google-owned video platform also removed Kjellberg from its preferred advertising program, which enables major YouTube channels to reap higher profits from ad revenue than the average YouTube channel.
And on Thursday, Kjellberg issued a response via — you guessed it! — his YouTube channel.
As you might've guessed from the image, Kjellberg is pissed.
In the video, titled, "My Response," Kjellberg rails against the media in a rant that's more reminscent of a recent presidential candidate-turned-president than the usually affable YouTuber.
"It was an attack by the media to try and discredit me, to try and decrease my influence, and my economic worth," he says.
Notably, while thoughtless, tasteless, and inappropriate, Kjellberg's use of anti-Semitism seemingly doesn't stem from intolerance or racism.
He issued a statement on his Tumblr ahead of the Wall Street Journal report denouncing hate groups who picked up on his anti-Semitic "humor" as serious. Here's the full letter:
"Just to clear some things up…
It came to my attention yesterday that some have been pointing to my videos and saying that I am giving credibility to the anti-Semitic movement, and my fans are part of it as well for watching. I don’t want to cite the sources because I don’t want to give them any more attention.
This originated from a video I made a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online. I picked something that seemed absurd to me—That people on Fiverr would say anything for 5 dollars.
I think it’s important 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 content that I create as entertainment, and not a place for any serious political commentary. I know my audience understand that and that is why they come to my channel. Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.
As laughable as it is to believe that I might actually endorse these people, to anyone unsure on my standpoint regarding hate-based groups: No, I don’t support these people in any way.
Thanks for reading."
So, what'd he say that sparked all this controversy? The most prominent example is Kjellberg paying two gentlemen to hold up a sign that read "Death to all Jews."
Using the website Fiverr, Kjellberg hired two men to make a sign that said "Death to All Jews." Fiverr enables users to hire freelancers to perform tasks for $5. Kjellberg says this was a joke meant to point out how you could use the internet to get people to do anything for a relatively low amount of money.
Hate groups, however, took it another way. "Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, since the effect is the same. It normalizes Nazism, and marginalizes our enemies," a post on The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, reads.
It was stuff like this that led Kjellberg to issue his statement on Tumblr on February 13, even though he continues to defend his use of anti-Semitism. "A lot of people loved the video, and a lot of people didn't. And it's almost like two generations of people arguing whether this is OK or not," he says in his "My Response" video, posted on Thursday.
