PewDiePie’s YouTube Red Show Axed After Anti-Semitic Jokes

Video streaming platform YouTube has pulled the plug on the second season of PweDiePie's premium show "Scare PewDiePie". This comes after Maker Studios, a production under the Disney banner, has cut its ties with the YouTuber following some anti-Semitic pranks shown a month back.

Making matters worse, the video sharing platform is also taking PewDiePie's channel out of its Google Preferred service and has pulled out ads on the videos as YouTube claims it violates the service's policies on advertising. For most that are unaware, Google Preferred is Google's advertising arm that sells content that is considered 'brand-safe'.  

As reported by Variety, PewDiePie, also known by his real name Felix Kjellberg, previously posted some videos tagged as anti-Semitic. One was showing a couple of shirtless men he paid to hold a sign with the phrase 'Death to all Jews', while another showed a some guy dressed as Jesus he paid to say that Hitler did nothing wrong. According to PewDiePie, whose channel holds the record as the most-subscribed channel with 53 million subscribers, stated that the point of the prank was show how crazy some internet services are, letting people do stuff for just $5.

PewDiePie gained fame as a YouTuber that focuses on profanity-laced video game vlogs. According to Kotaku, his show "Scare PewDiePie", a YouTube Red show with a $10 a month fee, tackles on ways to scare the YouTuber based on some video game ideas. Originally backed by Maker Studios and Skybound Entertainment, the former's withdrawal may have prompted for the show to be removed from the platform.

Videos pertaining to the anti-Semitic remarks have been removed from YouTube already, though the service platform claims that they were not responsible for removing the said content. While PewDiePie's YouTube Red program may have been pulled out, his regular channel on YouTube is still available.