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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

+techonomics

You went too far this time, Felix! PewDiePie [wikipedia.org], the YouTube channel with the highest amount of subscribers, over 53 million, is being dropped like a hot potato by Disney and YouTube [bbc.com] after making "anti-semitic" jokes:

Disney has cut ties with the world's highest paid YouTube star PewDiePie over allegations of anti-Semitism. The decision came after several videos he released over the past few months were found to contain Nazi references or anti-Semitic imagery. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, accepted the material was offensive, but said he did not support "any kind of hateful attitudes". The Swede is reported to have made $15m through YouTube in 2016.

[...] In one of the controversial videos, Mr Kjellberg paid two Indians through a crowd-sourcing website to hold up a sign which read "Death to all Jews". In a response to the criticism, he said he was "trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online" and that people "would say anything for five dollars".

To put it in context, basically every large YouTube channel receiving significant amounts of advertising revenue signs a contract with a "network" in order to navigate the legal and copyright problems associated with YouTube. They also provide marketing and promotion services. Maker Studios [wikipedia.org] is one of the largest YouTube networks (until now?).

Also at Washington Post [washingtonpost.com], TechCrunch [techcrunch.com], Variety [variety.com], and Bloomberg [bloomberg.com], which notes that YouTube is also taking action against PewDiePie by canceling the creation of premium content:

YouTube decided to remove Kjellberg's channel from its Google Preferred service and canceled the release of Scare PewDiePie Season 2, the company said in an e-mail Tuesday. The service says it prohibits content that violates its guidelines on hate speech. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported [bloomberg.com] that PewDiePie had posted nine videos with anti-Semitic jokes or Nazi imagery since August, though the Swede took some of them down subsequently. YouTube had banked on Kjellberg as one of the marquee names in its YouTube Red subscription service [bloomberg.com], which offers original programs such as "Scare PewDiePie," a reality-adventure comedy series that had been renewed for a second season.

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