BACKTRACKING

PewDiePie Cancels $50,000 Donation to Anti-Hate Group After Fan Backlash

The YouTuber said he felt inspired to “do something” after being name-checked in the Christchurch massacre video, but then backtracked.

Internet personality PewDiePie has backtracked on his pledge to give $50,000 to the Anti-Defamation League after a backlash from his subscribers. The YouTuber has previously been condemned for using racist and anti-Semitic language in his videos, but appeared to be attempting to repent in a video posted Tuesday when he promised money to the anti-hate group. In a clip posted two days later, he backtracked and said the donation was a “mistake” that didn’t “feel genuine” to him. “I made the mistake of picking a charity I was advised [to donate to] instead of picking a charity I’m personally passionate about, which is 100% my fault,” he said. He said that he felt “the responsibility to do something” after the New Zealand mosque mass shooter urged people to “subscribe to PewDiePie” in the live-steam of the massacre, but that he “didn’t know a lot of things that surfaced throughout this whole thing about the charity that doesn’t fit at all. So I understand why people had concerns about it.”