What Happened to PewDiePie in 2017? A Look Back at the YouTuber's Major Fail

Publish date: 2024-05-18

A Quick Breakdown of PewDiePie's Complicated History With YouTube

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May 6 2020, Updated 12:fifty nine p.m. ET

Source: Getty Images

No one has been in a position to leap back from scandal like PewDiePie. Just three years after YouTube got rid of the massively widespread content author from their Google Preferred promoting program over a prank involving anti-Semitic rhetoric, the 30-year-old announced that he inked an exclusive live-stream take care of the platform.

PewDiePie (whose actual identify is Felix Kjellberg) in brief left the video-sharing service in 2019 for blockchain’s DLive, however in a statement previous this week, the Swedish gamer enthusiastically declared, "To be able to partner with YouTube and be at the forefront of new product features is special and exciting for the future." 

For fanatics who consider PewDiePie’s "cancellation" in 2017, the settlement might come as a shock given that YouTube once went to great lengths to distance itself from the arguable comedian.

What happened to PewDiePie in 2017?

YouTube and Maker Studios, a Disney-owned multi-channel network, revealed in February 2017 that they had been pulling the plug on the internet character’s fact show, Scare PewDiePie, and taking him off the highly coveted Preferred content material checklist following a collection of offensive stunts.

Source: Instagram

The videos in query revolved around the Tel Aviv-based freelance provider Fiverr, which, at the time, allowed people to rent other folks to do or say anything for $5. 

For one "prank," PewDiePie paid two Indian men to cling up a signal studying "Death to All Jews." Another featured a guy dressed as Jesus pronouncing, "Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong."

The disturbing pictures gained intense backlash, but it wasn’t until The Wall Street Journal did an investigation into PewDiePie’s past use of Nazi imagery and anti-Semitic humor that YouTube took motion in opposition to the vlogger.

A few days ahead of the platform cut ties with PewDiePie, he attempted to diffuse the scenario in a blog post. "Just to clear some things up… It came to my attention yesterday that some have been pointing to my videos and saying that I am giving credibility to the anti-Semitic movement," he wrote on Feb. 12, 2017. 

"I was trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online," he continued. "I am in no way supporting any kind of hateful attitudes… Though this was not my intention, I understand that these jokes were ultimately offensive."

Source: YouTube

He concluded, "As laughable as it is to believe that I might actually endorse these people, to anyone unsure on my standpoint regarding hate-based groups: No, I don’t support these people in any way."

PewDiePie's handle YouTube comes a few months after he "quit" the platform.

The influencer, who currently has over 104 million subscribers on his channel, told lovers in January that he was once "after all taking a break" after just about a decade of posting content every unmarried day.

But he couldn’t stay away for long. On Feb. 21, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled, "I went on a break for 30 days & THIS HAPPENED." In the 15-minute recording, the social media superstar explained that he and wife Marzia Bisognin took a holiday to Japan, but other than that, "I haven't done much. It's been nice actually."

At least he got that break in before COVID-19 hit.

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