PewDiePie ADL Donation Controversy

Overview

PewDiePie ADL Donation Controversy refers to an online backlash towards YouTuber Felix Kjellberg (a.k.a. PewDiePie) following his announcement that he would be donating $50,000 to the international Jewish non-governmental organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Following widespread criticism of the donation, Kjellberg announced he would be donating to a different charity.

Background

On September 10th, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "Unboxing 100 MIL YouTube AWARD!!" in which he revealed his Red Diamond Creator Award (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video received more than 17.9 million views and 280,000 comments.

In the video, PewDiePie announced that he would be donating 50,000 USD to the international Jewish non-governmental organization Anti-Defamation League, which in 2017 commended^[1] Disney's decision to sever ties with the creator following videos in which he performed a Nazi salute and hired two Fiverr freelancers to hold up a "Death to all Jews" sign.^[2]

Developments

Online Reaction

Following the upload, multiple users on YouTube, Twitter and other platforms speculated that PewDiePie's decision to donate to the organization might have been forced, with some of the commenters accusing ADL of blackmail and with others criticizing the aforementioned groups.^[3][4] Additionally, a number of users on YouTube reported that some comments were being removed from the video.^[5]

On September 11th, 2019, PewDiePie posted a response claryfing the reasons behind his donation.^[6]

I wanted to show publicly that I can move past it and move on.

ADL's Response

On September 11th, 2019, the news site Jewish Chronicle^[7] published a statement from an ADL spokesperson who claimed that the organization first learned about the donation after PewDiePie posted the video, and that they had "not received any communication from him beyond that."

PewDiePie's Response

On September 12th, 2019, PewDiePie uploaded a video titled "My 100 Mil Award Broke!", in which he addressed the controversy at the beginning of the video and revealed he would be taking his time to decide a different organization to donate to (shown below).

"To be fair, I saw it as an opportunity to put an end to the alt-right claims that have been thrown against me. It wasn't to try and clear my name and save grace, if it was I would've done it years ago, but after the Christchurch tragedy, I felt a responsibility to do something about it."

Search Interest

External References