Disney Drops YouTube Star Felix Kjellberg, Known As PewDiePie, For Anti-Semitic Videos

Disney-owned Maker Studios has severed ties with PewDiePie, one of the platform’s most popular YouTube stars.

DISNEY DROPS YOUTUBER PEWDIEPIE

Maker dropped the Swedish Felix Kjellberg, better known by his stage name PewDiePie, for releasing a series of anti-Semitic videos. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kjellberg has posted nine anti-Semitic videos since last August.

“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,’’ said a Maker Studios spokeswoman in a statement. “Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward.”

Today, the service canceled Scare PewDiePie Season 2, a sequel to their original YouTube series. They also dropped Kjellberg from the list on Google Preferred.

PewDiePie had amassed 53 million subscribers since he began posting funny videos of himself discussing video games. According to a data compilation service, PewDiePie is the most popular user on YouTube, with his videos getting nearly 14.7 billion hits. Last year, it is reported, Kjellberg raked in $15 million last year, largely from his book This Book Loves You and his YouTube Red series.

Three of the videos in question were all published last month and garnered 23 million views before they were all deleted. One featured a man dressed as Jesus Christ saying, “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.” In another, Kjellberg hired two men to make a sign that said “Death to All Jews.”

Kjellberg spoke out against his critics on Sunday. “I think it’s important to say something, and I want to make one thing clear: I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes,” he said. He added: “Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive.”