An immensely popular YouTube streamer has once again come under fire for using racist language online.
Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg was playing “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” on a live stream over the weekend when he dropped the n-word.
“What a fucking n—–,” Kjellberg said before correcting himself. “Sorry, but what the f—. What a f—ing a–hole.”
“I don’t mean that in a bad way,” he added.
The clip started spreading on social media and message boards, prompting some game developers to take action.
Following the incident, Sean Vanaman, the co-founder of Campo Santo, whose game “Firewatch” Kjellberg recently streamed, said he was going to file a DMCA takedown against the streamer, meaning the company would invoke their right to protect their copyright. While Vanaman didn’t say whether the decision was in direct response to the video, the motivations are clear.
“We’re filing a DCMA takedown of PewDiePie’s Firewatch content and any future Campo Santo games,” Vanaman wrote on Twitter. “There is a bit of leeway you have to have with the internet when u wake up every day and make video games. There’s also a breaking point.”
Kotaku reported that a video of Kjellberg playing “Firewatch,” which had 5.7 million views on YouTube, had been taken down as of 7:30 p.m. Sunday night.
You can check out his full statement below.
https://twitter.com/vanaman/status/906983575337107456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fkotaku.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-906983575337107456%26autosize%3D1
There is a bit of leeway you have to have with the internet when u wake up every day and make video games. There’s also a breaking point.
— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017
I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make.
— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017
He’s worse than a closeted racist: he’s a propagator of despicable garbage that does real damage to the culture around this industry.
— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017
https://twitter.com/vanaman/status/906985405093838848
This isn’t the first time Kjellberg has gotten into the news over things he said. In January, he posted a video that featured footage of men holding a sign that said “Death to all Jews.” A Wall Street Journal article found other instances of anti-Semetic jokes on his channel, prompting Disney’s Maker Studios to sever ties with the star and YouTube Red to cancel his upcoming series.
“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 said in a statement.
In September of last year, he was also suspended from Twitter for making jokes about the Islamic State.
Kjellberg currently has over 57 million subscribers on YouTube. As of 2016, he was the highest-paid star on the video service.