YouTube joins Disney in taking action against PewDiePie

YouTube has cancelled YouTube personality PewDiePie’s scripted series, Scare PewDiePie, after anti-Semitic videos were published on his personal channel.

Today, YouTube issued a statement about PewDiePie’s Scare PewDiePie series, which is produced by The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman, on YouTube Red and its relationship going forward with the personality.

“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 said in a statement. PewDiePie being removed from Google Preferred, an advertisement platform reserved for more notable content creators means he will lose some of its financial backing from Google, YouTube parent’s company.

Disney-owned Maker Studios, which PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, was contracted under announced last night it was cutting its ties with the YouTuber after the Wall Street Journal catalogued a series of anti-Semitic videos dating back to August of last year. Last night, Maker Studios also released a statement about its relationship with the YouTube star, admitting he had gone too far.

“Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case,” a representative of Maker Studios told the Journal. “The resulting videos are inappropriate.”

PewDiePie was one of the first people to get his own series on YouTube Red — the video platforms’ paid subscription streaming platform. The cost of a subscription cost $9.99 a month and came with exclusive content not available on the free side of the site. PewDiePie premiered the first season of his show, which follows the YouTuber exploring sets from famous video games that he’s provided commentary over, last February.

YouTube announced in June, following the first season’s finale, that Scare PewDiePie would be returning for a second season this year. The show has now been cancelled.

According to YouTube’s guidelines, content creators can be satirical and incorporate boundary-pushing humor, but “Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown,” are strictly prohibited.

PewDiePie has yet to release a statement about the controversy, but Polygon has reached out to both him and YouTube for more information. We will update the article as more information becomes available.