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Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie, has signed an exclusivity agreement with YouTube to stream content only on its platform (via VG247).
“YouTube has been my home for over a decade now and live streaming on the platform feels like a natural fit as I continue to look for new ways to create content and interact with fans worldwide,” said Kjellberg of the renewed partnership. “Live streaming is something I’m focusing a lot on in 2020 and beyond, so to be able to partner with YouTube and be at the forefront of new product features is special and exciting for the future.”
In January 2017, Kjellberg paid two men to hold up a sign that read “Death to all Jews.” The controversy cost him his YouTube Red reality show, and YouTube chose to remove him from the premium ad programme for the platform. “I acknowledge that I took things too far, and that's something I definitely will keep in mind moving forward,” apologised Kjellberg. “But the reaction and the outrage has been nothing but insanity.”
In September 2017, the content creator said a racial slur during a PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds livestream on YouTube. Though he deleted the video from his channel, the clip of him using the slur was shared far and wide, with some saying that it was only a mistake, and others saying that the statement was abhorrent. He apologised for his choice of words, and felt culpable for an “extremely immature and stupid” part of gaming.
“It was something that I said in the heat of the moment. I said the worst word I could possibly think of and it just kind of slipped out. I’m not going to make any excuses as to why it did because there are no excuses for it,” continued the streamer. Disney, which was his network partner at the time, elected to drop its contract with Kjellberg for the use of the racial slur and the subsequent fallout.
On March 15, 2019, a gunman killed 51 people in mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and asked viewers of the livestreamed attack to “subscribe to PewDiePie.” Kjellberg expressed his sorrow for the tragedy, and pledged to donate $50,000 to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a non-profit organisation that fights antisemitism. Then, he pulled the pledge, and explained that he “made the mistake of picking a charity that I was advised to instead of picking a charity that I’m personally passionate about.”
The terms of this new exclusivity agreement were not publicised, but it is a curious choice from YouTube to partner with PewDiePie once again, after his continued controversies.