"This is clearly hate speech.PewdiePie’s effort to defend it as an attempt to be funny falls flat. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, told Forbes. "We are pleased by Disney’s decision to sever ties with PewDiePie following his posting of videos on YouTube containing swastikas and other anti-Semitic content, including one image of two men holding a sign saying ‘death to all Jews,’" Jonathan A. Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward,” a spokeswoman for Maker Studios told Forbes. “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. He will also take a hit from the cancellation of his YouTube Red series, which paid him a six-figure salary. Brands will also be less likely to advertise with him now that he is not part of the Google Preferred program, and because pre-roll ads make up the bulk of his paycheck, this will surely lead to an earnings drop. Without a powerhouse media company helping to finance his endeavors, PewDiePie will see a decline in his earnings this year. Kjellberg must now take care of these more technical aspects of his business alone. Though the specifics of the deal between Maker and Kjellberg are not public, it is likely that Disney helps with some of Kjellberg's business matters-such as merchandise, video and app production-in return for a share of his revenue. bought Maker Studios, the multichannel network that partners with Kjellberg, for $675 million.
Last year, the Swedish gamer made $15 million thanks to the ads that play during his videos, his participation in a YouTube Red series, merchandise sales and his best-selling book This Book Loves You. Kjellberg's PewDiePie channel, which gained popularity for videos of Kjellberg playing video games while offering crude comment, has over 53 million subscribers, and he has received over 14 billion views, more than anyone else on YouTube.
"We’ve decided to cancel the release of Scare PewDiePie Season 2 and we’re removing the PewDiePie channel from Google Preferred," a YouTube spokesperson told Forbes, referencing Kjellberg's YouTube Red series and the program that feeds the platform's top content to brands. PewDiePie has taken down three of the nine videos in question. Google, the parent of YouTube, had previously pulled ads from the videos in question, though YouTube did not take down any videos from the site despite the platform's rule that bans any video that “promotes or condones violence against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin (or) religion."