After the massive backlash that followed after PewDiePie said the N-word in anger during a PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds livestream, he has now put out a video called ‘My Response’, where he apologizes for his actions.
“In the heat of the moment, I said the worst word I could possibly think of, and it just sort of slipped out. I’m disappointed in myself because it seems like I’ve learned nothing from all these past controversies,” Kjellberg said. “It’s not like I think I can say or do whatever I want and get away with it, that’s not it at all — I’m just an idiot. But that doesn’t make what I said or how I said it OK. I’m really sorry if I offended, hurt or disappointed anyone with all of this. Being in the position I am, I should know better. I can’t keep messing up like this.”
His apology seems sincere enough, though it yet remains to be seen how or if YouTube will take any action.
Felix “Pewdiepie” Kjellberg has been taking some flak over the last few months regarding his content containing racial jests and commentary. While Pewdiepie himself has defended himself saying that his words were taken out of content, and the media is out to get him, others disagree. And for some of those who disagree, this latest ‘incident’ has crossed a line.
In a recent video, while playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Pewdiepie shouts some obscenities, including the N-word. “What a fucking n-” says Pewdiepie, while downing an opponent, “Sorry, but what the fuck. What a fucking asshole.” The original video has since been deleted from his channel, but here’s an alternative upload.
This does look really bad for him, and game developers have finally decided to take some action. Campo Santo, the studio behind Firewatch, have come out in the open saying. “We’re filing a DMCA takedown of PewDiePie’s Firewatch content and any future Campo Santo games.” Sean Vanaman, a developer at Campo Santo took to Twitter saying that they did not want to be affiliated in any way with Pewdiepie, and will be issuing DMCA strikes on videos of Firewatch that Pewdiepie has on his channel. Pewdiepie had done a full playthrough of Firewatch on his channel, which currently sits at over 5 million views.
After some game developers started calling him out, other big Youtubers have also come out criticizing Pewdiepie, and calling him responsible for the YouTube ad-pocalypse and ultimately a liability to the platform and the industry. If you didn’t know, the ad-pocalypse refers to the ongoing strict monetization rules and constant demonetization of YouTube videos that was triggered after big companies, that advertise on YouTube, had their attention called towards racist slurs and jokes being spouted in videos. Unfortunately for Pewdiepie, he got dragged right in the center of it all, since he is the biggest channel on YouTube, and has actually been making some jokes about Nazis, Jews and the Holocaust.
Jim Sterling recently put out a video addressing some of these issues, and called him a liability to YouTube and others who create content on the platform.
John ‘TotalBiscuit’ Bain has also come out in support of the game developers, saying they were well within their rights to file a DMCA claim against Pewdiepie’s videos made about their game, Firewatch.
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