While PewDiePie was calling Lilly Singh an “idiot” and a “crybaby” for questioning why there were no women on the Forbes list of top YouTube earners in one of his latest videos, he also mentioned a few smaller YouTube channels he enjoys watching.
One of which was a channel that spews out anti-Semitic, sexist, and homophobic language in some of its vlogs, according to the Verge.
YouTuber EsemicolonR, aka E;R, has made videos with Nazi propaganda and has used racist language, as noted by Twitter user Hasan Piker.
yesterday pewdiepie ended #Subscribetopewdiepie in a video where he promoted some of his favorite channels. one of them was straight up a neo-nazi's yt page where he makes video essays on children's cartoons with added nazi propoganda https://t.co/KBIfpVdfXi
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) December 10, 2018
In his video, PewDiePie said “E;R does great video essays. He did one on [Manga series] Death Note, which I really, really enjoyed.” The shoutout lasted a total of eight seconds. But in the few days since PewDiePie mentioned the channel, E;R added more than 22,000 subscribers, according to Social Blade. The YouTube account, as of this writing, has close to 220,000 subscribers.
The Verge wrote, “E;R’s videos are disturbing. They often use the guise of film, anime, or cartoon criticism to convey anti-Semitic and hateful thoughts or imagery.” In one video, E;R used footage of the Charlottesville rally that left a protester named Heather Heyer dead. E;R then joked about Heyer. According to the Verge, PewDiePie gave a thumbs-up to that video and left a comment on it. In another video, E;R used sexist and anti-Semitic language and showed a lengthy clip of a Hitler speech.
The Verge also wrote that E;R plugs its accounts on BitChute and Gab—both of which are social media platforms known to be used by the far right.
YouTube has begun to take action, taking down one of E;R’s controversial videos and issuing a strike.
https://twitter.com/EsemicolonR/status/1072260100138639360
https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/1072274674871095302
Now is it fair to blast YouTube’s most popular channel for not knowing everything that happens on the YouTube channels he promotes? Maybe not. But PewDiePie also won’t get—nor does he deserve—the benefit of the doubt in this situation. As BuzzFeed reporter Joe Bernstein flagged, PewDiePie frequently engages with anti-Semitic gamers online.
https://twitter.com/Bernstein/status/1072505665049018368
PewDiePie in 2017 made at least nine videos that featured Nazi imagery and anti-Semitic jokes, and he also casually dropped racist language into one of his gaming videos.
He’s since disavowed his actions in those videos, but he continues to feud with female streamers and YouTubers and, at times, uses misogynistic language when referring to them.
PewDiePie—who just passed the 76 million subscriber barrier—has not commented on the matter through social media.
But nobody should be surprised that, despite his massive subscriber base, YouTube has backed away from promoting PewDiePie in its year-end rewind videos. Because even when he’s trying to promote other people’s channels, he can’t stop himself from creating controversy and toxicity.
Update 3:19pm CT: As Dexerto notes, PewDiePie has edited his video to take out his reference to E;R. In a newly released video, PewDiePie said didn’t know about E;R’s Nazi imagery. He also mocked the idea that he was shepherding young fans to Naziism, as some critics have claimed.
In the video, PewDiePie said, “Obviously, if I noticed that, I wouldn’t have referenced him in the shoutout. Not because I have a problem with Nazi references being offensive in themselves, but because I said publicly a year and a half ago that I was going to distance myself from Nazi jokes and that kind of stuff because I want nothing to do with it.
“The irony here is that I’m supposed to be the Nazi, but I don’t know any of these goddamn references.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ph8M_8sVOEA
H/T the Verge