Pewdiepie, the man who, with its charisma (read: controversy) made 15 million dollars on YouTube, has broken down business relationships both with Disney and YouTube. Disney ended the cooperation over a series of videos where the YouTube star was seen depicting Nazi imagery and taking part into anti-Semitic jokes. In one of the videos in question Pewdiepie paid a couple of people to hold a sign saying: “Death to all Jews”.
The people holding the sign were employed by Pewdiepie via the website Fiverr. After the scandal, Fiverr banned the three culprits, but later decided to unban the two freelancers, after Pewdiepie pleaded for their innocence in the whole matter.
“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,” said a representative of Maker Studios, agency which was bought by Disney for 675 million dollars, and was closely cooperating with Pewdiepie.
All Pewdiepie had to say was that his intention was not to be offensive, although he does understand that jokes like this are highly offensive. What he wanted to accomplish was to show how crazy the modern world actually is, especially some of the services offered on the internet.
At first, a YouTube representative simply explained that if a content is supposed to be provocative or satiric then, by all means, it should stay online. However, if the purpose of the uploader was to incite violence or hate, then the video will be shut down. While we were all slightly amused by the company’s Zen attitude, YouTube rushed to surprise us all again by cancelling the second season of the premium show Scare Pewdiepie and even took additional steps to remove the star from Google Preferred. Even though this might be seen as a huge blow to the Swedish millionaire it seems it’s far from enough to make a considerable dent into his finances. Pewdiepie can still continue to earn revenue through the official channels.
Pewdiepie’s activities, however, don’t go unnoticed and are stirring all kinds of controversy. While one group of people is judging him profusely, another is not only defending but also encouraging him to never back down and continue doing what he’s doing best. Support like this comes in many forms and from least expected places, one being a neo-Nazi website, Daily Stormer, which recently changed its name to the world’s #1 PewDiePie fansite.
