NEW YORK, Feb 14 — Disney has dropped world’s highest-earning YouTube star PewDiePie after he posted a series of videos featuring anti-Semitic messages.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the 27 year-old popular Swedish YouTuber, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, posted nine videos featuring anti-Semetic comments or Nazi imagery since August last year.
These include a video of two men he paid to hold up a sign reading “Death to All Jews” and another with a man dressed as Jesus who says, “Hitler did nothing wrong.”
PewDiePie was later reported to have said that the video was a joke that had gone too far, and has taken down three of the nine videos in question.
Forbes reported that Walt Disney Co bought Maker Studios, the multichannel network that partners with PewDiePie, for US$675 million and most likely helps with some of PewDiePie’s business matters in return for a share of his revenue.
“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,” a spokeswoman for Maker Studios told WSJ.
PewDiePie, whose gaming videos feature foul-mouthed comments have netted him over 53 million subscribers, made US$15 million (RM66.7 million) in 2016, according to Forbes.
