Disney Drop PewDiePie For Posting Anti-Semitic Videos On YouTube

Disney’s Maker Studios have dropped YouTube star PewDiePie (Felix Kjellberg), following allegations of anti-Semitism, as some of his recent videos included Nazi or anti-Semitic imagery.  PewDiePie has taken down some of those videos but Disney have decided they no longer want to be affiliated to him.

Maker Studios have said “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”.  They added that “Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward.”

PewDiePie has accepted the material was offensive, but said he did not support “any kind of hateful attitudes”.  He also said that he was “trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online” and that people “would say anything for five dollars”.  PewDiePie also said that was “laughable” to suggest he endorsed that message but added that “though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive”.

The YouTube star has over 54 million subscribers and has caught the attention of the media on many occasions such as last year when he was temporarily suspended from Twitter after making jokes about the so-called Islamic State and for saying he would delete his channel when he hit 50 million subscribers.