by Eben Griger Disney and YouTube are distancing themselves from YouTube star Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, after a string of anti-Semitic videos. The videos, beginning in August 2016, featured images such as: the attempted resurrection of Adolf Hitler, a man dressed as Jesus Christ saying “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong,” and, most recently, a video of two south-east Asian men holding up a sign saying “Death to all Jews,” which Kjellberg paid them to do. Sunday, Kjellberg made a post to his Tumblr, saying his videos should not be taken as “serious political commentary” and he is “in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes,” though no apology was given in the post. However, he did make an apology in one of the offending videos. Maker Studios and the Disney company released a statement on Monday severing their ties:
“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.”Tuesday, a YouTube spokeswoman said the platform will be dropping PewDiePie from their advertising, as well as cancelling the release of the YouTube Red series “Scare PewDiePie.”
Sources: PewDiePie, NPR, New York Times Image: Mashable
