YouTube Star PewDiePie uses racial slur during stream, developer files DMCA notice in...

[midian182]

YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is once again in trouble for making racial statements. The service’s most popular and highest-paid broadcaster was live-streaming Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds when he used the n-word during a rant.

After he used the slur, Kjellberg changed his description of the player it was aimed at to “a f**ing a**hole.” He apologized and said: "I don't mean that in a bad... " You can see the incident in the tweet below. Be warned, it’s NSFW (naturally) and contains many expletives. After the segment, Kjellberg explained that “Sometimes I forget I’m streaming.”

PewDiePie, the biggest YouTuber, on his livestream: 'What a fucking n-word'. pic.twitter.com/mISevBEn4T

— THE POP HUB ? (@ThePopHub) September 10, 2017

Some people have tried to use the fact that English isn’t Kjellberg’s first language as an excuse, and that he doesn't realize the gravity of the word. His co-broadcaster said the Swede had a “weird filter.”

Kjellberg has over 57 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, which, thanks to advertising income, reportedly generated over $15 million for the 27-year-old last year.

After the video surfaced, Firewatch developer Sean Vanaman tweeted that he was filing a DMCA takedown against PewDiePie’s Firewatch playthrough, along with any future releases from the Campo Santo games studio.

"I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make. He's worse than a closeted racist: he's a propagator of despicable garbage that does real damage to the culture around this industry," tweeted Vanaman, who called on other game makers to take similar actions.

"I'd urge other developers & will be reaching out to folks much larger than us to cut him off from the content that has made him a millionaire. Furthermore, we're complicit: I'm sure we've made money off of the 5.7M views that video has and that's something for us to think about."

I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make.

— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017

Not everyone is happy with Vanaman’s response, with some claiming a DMCA notice is the wrong route to take - one that infringes on freedom of expression.

Freedom of speech is freedom of prosecution
His stream is not commentary, it is ad growth for his brand
Our game on his channel =endorsement

— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017

Kjellberg hasn’t responded to requests for comment, but his channel’s Firewatch video is no longer accessible.

Back in February, PewDiePie was dropped by Disney-owned Maker Studios for the anti-Semitic content that appeared in a series of his videos. YouTube canceled the second season of the Red-exclusive Scare PewDiePie show as a result of the clips, which featured a Sri Lanka-based group of men - hired by Kjellberg for $5 through Fiverr - holding up a sign that read “death to all Jews.”

The controversy surrounding Kjellberg led to white supremacist site The Daily Stormer putting up a banner earlier this year that claimed it was “The world’s #1 PewDiePie fansite.” Following the Charlottesville protests, Kjellberg said he would no longer make jokes about Jewish people and Nazis.

Back in April, professional Overwatch player Matt “Dellor” Vaughn destroyed his career when he repeatedly shouted the same racist slur for around 30 seconds during a ranked match. He blamed it on the fact he was having a bad day and didn’t get much sleep. You can see the (obviously NSFW) clip below.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/70922-youtube-star-pewdiepie-uses-racial-slur-during-stream.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Meh. Why should he care in the least. He's probably made more than enough money from his business so that he can shut it down, slip into obscurity and live out his life very comfortably but the problem with these types of people is that 'too much' is still 'not enough', they crave the limelight and attention and their ginormous ego's just won't let them quit. Personally I would hate to live in that kind of fishbowl world but each to their own.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

So the developer, because he was offended at "free speech" used it as an excuse to abuse the DMCA copyright system.

Now, in an ideal world, pew would decide to generate some serious internet salt by pursuing this DMCA claim, and taking the dev to task over any possible monetary damages. Most likely though felix will simply ignore him.
Even though I dont watch his stuff, he is getting pretty good at getting these thin skinned devs to chimp out over minor stuff, which is hilarious to watch.

 

[Uncle Al]

Frankly, I don't waste my time watching *****s on Youtube .... we've already got enough of them that show up on the national news every night ......

 

[Arris]

I'm with Vanaman. "Kjellberg explained that “Sometimes I forget I’m streaming.”", so he's just a racist offline. Good to know.

 

[EClyde]

Never heard of him.

 

[yRaz]

Well streaming games has already been accepted as "fair use" so this guy doesn't really have a case. And I just see "the n-word" as any other swear word. I say it when I'm gaming online, doesn't mean I'm a racist.

 

[Panda218]

Vanaman comes off as a child here in my eyes. I don't condone what Pewds said and I even called it out in his chat during the stream, but anyone who watches a streamer knows what Chat is like... I look forward to pewds response video.

 

[Trillionsin]

If you were making millions from doing this, I don't think you would be so negligent about what you say. There's always someone out there looking to tear you down and in this day and age anything you say despite freedom of speech, can still get you canned. lmao

 

[davislane1]

What an unmitigated, frosty snowflake.

Has he ever seen an unmoderated Battlefield chat window when medics don't do their job?

Or any public CoD game at any point in time?

Weak.

 

[davislane1]

And I just see "the n-word" as any other swear word. I say it when I'm gaming online, doesn't mean I'm a racist.

Distinguishing between swear words and actual racism requires thought, though. Thought in an age of feels.

 

[davislane1]

If you were making millions from doing this, I don't think you would be so negligent about what you say. There's always someone out there looking to tear you down and in this day and age anything you say despite freedom of speech, can still get you canned. lmao

He knows what he's doing. He drops one n-bomb and the entire internet is talking about it.

In this case, most people in the gaming community know that n-bombs (and "faggot") are commonplace in online gaming. They mean little more than any other swear word there. They most certainly aren't racism.

This is net positive for PewDiePie because he's being attacked for saying things ordinary gamers say.

Vanaman is the loser here, even if PP takes a short-term hit. He's successfully outed himself as part of the speech police, which, if you haven't noticed, is increasingly unpopular among non-snowflakes and non-SJWs.

 

[erickmendes]

Developers put "Tea-Bagging" in the games... So what the f*** wrong when a streamer rant? Sure racist words are not adequate, but a lot of trash is said and done in games, when they are streamed online.

As any testosterone filled main male competitive sports, video gaming is going to perpeatuate these things.

 

[Rippleman]

I will say this as nice as possible but still, may result in a ban.

Call me what ever name you want: Honky, cracker, zipper head, ****, *******, cave ape, slant eyes, ******, red head, porch ape, blah blah blah... I don't care.

Care to know why? Becuase I am not racist so I do not care about names. I am also smart enough to realize they are just strings of sounds joined together. I wish everyone wouldn't care.

NOTE: HAHAHA, only the word that references blacks are censored! TechSpot is racist!!!!!!
NOTE 2: A couple of the other words now being censored.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I will say this as nice as possible but still, may result in a ban.

Call me what ever name you want: Honky, cracker, zipper head, ****, *******, cave ape, slant eyes, ******, red head, porch ape, blah blah blah... I don't care.

Care to know why? Becuase I am not racist so I do not care about names. I am also smart enough to realize they are just strings of sounds joined together. I wish everyone wouldn't care.

NOTE: HAHAHA, only the word that references blacks are censored! TechSpot is racist!!!!!!
NOTE 2: A couple of the other words now being censored.

But that would be admitting that the outrage is all over fee-fees and not anything of substance!

I mean, the game dev in question is white. WHITE. Yet he is so upset that pewds used a slur aimed at....black people.The virtue signalling here blows harder then irma (too soon?)

And so far, I'm only seeing one of your words censored.

 

[texasrattler]

I love how black people can use the n word but anyone else uses it they are labeled a racist lol ... what a joke. The n word is used so frequent nowadays, is it really that bad? No. No more than b*tch being used.

If people don't want the word used, maybe someone should tell black people to STOP using the freakin n word.

 

[davislane1]

NOTE: HAHAHA, only the word that references blacks are censored! TechSpot is racist!!!!!!
NOTE 2: A couple of the other words now being censored.

Looks like there's a ***** in their armor.

...

 

[davislane1]

I love how black people can use the n word but anyone else uses it they are labeled a racist lol ... what a joke. The n word is used so frequent nowadays, is it really that bad? No. No more than b*tch being used.

If people don't want the word used, maybe someone should tell black people to STOP using the freakin n word.

In place of 'n-word' I propose using the word 'Nigerian'. It is trolly and sufficiently spiteful to rustle many jimmies.

 

[ManuelV]

Since everyone in this world are saints, we should start burning alive all the people that say the n world, that say anything bad about woman, lets see, we should do that to my neighbord that is an as&%4, my exgirlfriend who cheat me, my exboss who was an (you know what), and everything in the word that isnt a 100% saint.

Using the n word is bad, but so there are so many insults everyone gets or make every day and not because of that you get your salary reduced or loss your job.

One thing is using the n word as an insult and another thing is being an ignorant racist.

 

[Stingy McDuck]

I don't follow Pewdie, so I don't understand the hate or the love he gets. And I'm totally against racism, being latino myself and of arabic ascendance on top of that. I mention this before someone asks me to check my privilege.

Having said that, I don't get the outrage this created. So is it totally acceptable to call someone a f**ing a**hole and to tell him to go f**k himself in an online game (I know you can get banned for using that language, but you don't make it into national news), but using use the n-word it's totally out of the question? If anything, I consider it a swear word and something very rude to call someone, a term any decent person wouldn't use, but I don't see it as something to create such an outrage about.

I wonder who is the one who is actually trying to bring attention to himself in this situation, Felix or Sean. If something, I now Techspot is getting good traffic out of this.

 

[Skjorn]

I love how black people can use the n word but anyone else uses it they are labeled a racist lol ... what a joke. The n word is used so frequent nowadays, is it really that bad? No. No more than b*tch being used.

If people don't want the word used, maybe someone should tell black people to STOP using the freakin n word.

In place of 'n-word' I propose using the word 'Nigerian'. It is trolly and sufficiently spiteful to rustle many jimmies.

Nah its that guilt they want everyone who isn't of possible Niger descent to feel. Manipulation through intimidation. I prefer Niger over Nigeria.

Its probably the biggest example of widespread hypocrisy there is. A hate word being used as call names daily and socially by the very groups its directed at is global hypocrisy.

 

[mr5elfd3struct]

The N word...Jesus. If he was black, there would be no uproar. If he was using it directly at a black person, then, depending on the context, maybe. Using the N word at a computer sprite....grow up ffs..

 

[mr5elfd3struct]

I use "Nige" to my friends and online...its, very British.

 

[Kotters]

I think PDP and youtubers like him are cancer, but I'll support cancer over identitarian SJWism.

 

[2manycromosomas]

People are dying nobody cares. Pewdiepie says n word internet splits in half