The Unofficial PewDiePie Thread

In January 2017, Pew Die Pie began to receive criticism for his non-gaming videos. In one, he seemingly uses the word nigga,[98] which caused #Pewdiepie Is Over Party to trend worldwide on Twitter.[99] A few days later, Pew Die Pie created further controversy, when he uploaded a video featuring him reviewing the website Fiverr, which allows people to sell a service for $5 USD. In the video, Pew Die Pie shows his reaction to a duo he had paid to display the message "DEATH TO ALL JEWS" on a sign,[98][100] as a joke and attempt to highlight the ridiculous things which can be provided as a paid service on the Internet.[101] He immediately apologised within the same video stating, "I am sorry. I didn't think they would actually do it. I feel partially responsible," adding "I'm not anti-Semitic, [...] so don't get the wrong idea. It was a funny meme, and I didn't think it would work, okay."[98] Pew Die Pie received criticism from some users in the video's comment section, as well as from some media outlets.[98] As a result of this video, both Pew Die Pie and the duo were banned from the website, prompting them to upload an apology video stating that they did not understand the meaning of the sign, and that they were sorry to all Jews.

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A few weeks later, The Wall Street Journal reported on the incident, while also adding that since August 2016, Pew Die Pie has included anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery in nine separate videos.[103] The publication noted he removed three of the videos, including the January 2017 Fiverr one.[103][104] In a 12 February Tumblr post, Pew Die Pie expressed: "I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes, [...] I think of the content that I create as entertainment, and not a place for any serious political commentary," and conceded, "though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive."[101][104] In his post, he also reiterated he does not support anti-Semitic groups.[101] Pew Die Pie's motivation for his Tumblr post was partially driven by the fact that neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups and publications, such as The Daily Stormer, were referencing and praising Pew Die Pie for his jokes.[32][105]

On 13 February, the Disney-owned Maker Studios multi-channel network cut its ties with Pew Die Pie because of the aforementioned controversy and the additional videos containing allegedly anti-Semitic jokes.[104][106] Maker stated that "although [he had] created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate."[106] Google also took action, dropping him from the Google Preferred advertising program, as well as cancelling the Scare Pew Die Pie You Tube Red series.[107][108] Various media journalists and outlets joined the Wall Street Journal in criticising Pew Die Pie.[109][110][111] Kirsty Major of The Independent, Arwa Mahdawi of The Guardian, and Ben Kuchera of Polygon, were all critical of Pew Die Pie's defence of his content as jokes taken out of context, opining that his content helps normalise ideologies such as fascism, neo-Nazism, and white supremacy.[109][110][111] Ironically, the WSJ reporter Ben Fritz who wrote about Pew Die Pie himself has made several anti-Semitic and Nazi jokes on Twitter, which were picked up by Pew Die Pie fans who accused him of hypocrisy and began attacking him.[112][113]

Many in the You Tube community, including Ethan Klein of h3h3Productions, a Jewish You Tube sketch comedian, who is also friends with Pew Die Pie, as well as You Tube news commentator Philip De Franco, and popular gamer Markiplier, among others, defended Pew Die Pie and heavily criticised the way media handled the incident.[114][115] On 16 February, Pew Die Pie himself responded in a video entitled My Response, in which he apologised to those who were offended by his previous videos and which he also criticised the reporting by the media.[32][116][117] He also states The Wall Street Journal framed his jokes as "posts" and took them out of context.[118] One of the examples Pew Die Pie gives of this includes one of his vlogs, in which he expresses frustration at people creating swastikas in his Tuber Simulator video game.[119][120] In the My Response video, he also touched upon the aforementioned stylistic changes that his video content began undergoing, detailing his desire to be more honest and open about his opinions.[32]

You Tube’s Felix ‘Pew Die Pie‘ Kjellberg has posted a video defending politician Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a far-right Polish MEP who was suspended from European parliament for branding women “weaker, smaller and less intelligent.”

Pew Die Pie, who has 56 million subscribers on You Tube and is the site’s most popular video maker, uploaded the video titled ‘This man has -1000 respect for women and the reason why might SHOCK you’ to his channel, in which he discussed Korwin-Mikke’s interview earlier this year with Good Morning Britain hosts Piers Morgan and Suzanne Reid. During the interview, Piers asks Korwin-Mikke if he believesl that women are less intelligent than men, to which he replies: “Yes, of course.”

Pew Die Pie, who was the subject of controversy earlier this year following a Wall Street Journal report regarding “anti-Semitic” jokes featured in his videos, appears at the end of the video to discuss his thoughts on the interview with Korwin-Mikke. “The first time I watched this, my initial reaction was ‘holy s*** this guy is insane, what the f*** is he saying? He’s definitely sexist,'” he said. “But second time I watched it, interpreting all his stumbling and mumbling, I understand what he’s trying to say. Like he said many times, he’s not saying women should earn less, he’s saying they are because of these reasons.”

Pew Die Pie continued: “I don’t know if there’s a statistic that shows that women in general are less intelligent than men, and if there is I’d say ‘what’s the f***ing point?'”

Pew Die Pie then went on to discuss the gender wage gap. “What they did with the gender gap is they took all men, and all women, and did a median on it and said ‘oh okay, women earn this amount less than men in general,'” he said.”What they didn’t take into account was pretty much anything at all, like women working less hours, women choosing less high-paying jobs and so on.” He concluded: “If you’re a female watching this, I want you to know that you are not what the media or politicians or people on Twitter try to tell you… or even what I am [trying to tell you]. You’re not weak, you are not less privileged, you are strong. I think it’s a real unhealthy way of looking at things. What happened to ‘I am a woman hear me roar?’ It’s become ‘I am a woman, I earn less than men'"