PewDiePie threatens to quit YouTube over claims of sabotage

Video star PewDiePie said in a bizarre rant that he believes YouTube is sabotaging his channel. The Swedish YouTuber also said that he will going to delete his YouTube account because Google’s video service has been penalizing him in some way, leading to a dip in popularity. In a second video, he reiterated a threat that he would leave the site where he is the biggest personality.

He pointed to his race as well as the kinds of games that he uses in his videos as possible reasons for the conspiracy against him. PewDiePie’s real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, a 27-year-old Swede whose crazy antics and big reactions to games made him into a celebrity on YouTube, with tens of millions of followers. He’s influential because his promotion of games can make or break many titles.

“I’m white,” he said in the video, in what was mostly likely a poor joke. “Can I make that comment? But I do think that’s a problem.”

He said that YouTube apparently wanted to elevate someone else on the site, “someone extremely cancerous,” he said. That might be Lilly Singh, a Canadian YouTuber with Indian heritage, he suggested. In the first video, PewDiePie said that he would remove his account once he reached 50 million subscribers.

In a statement, a spokesperson for YouTube said, “Some creators have expressed concerns around a drop in their subscriber numbers. We’ve done an extensive review and found there have been no decreases in creators subscriber numbers beyond what normally happens when viewers either unsubscribe from a creator’s channel or when YouTube removes spammed subscribers. We do the latter to ensure that all creator subscriber numbers are accurate.”

We hear that YouTube is getting in touch with creators to address their concerns and that it’s normal to see fluctuations in subscribers. PewDiePie tweeted that YouTube has responded to him.

“YouTube is trying to kill my channel. It is clear. It is happening if you watch my analytics. It is all going down,” PewDiePie said in his first video. “It’s because I have so many subscribers, they are trying to kill my channel. This is all a conspiracy. YouTube wants to kill my channel. I’ve decided the only way to stop my channel from dying – I know you are going to think I am joking – but I am going to delete my channel.”

Meanwhile, PewDiePie’s video about deleting his channel has gotten 11 million views. And his follow-up has received more than 3 million views. In that follow-up video, PewDiePie said that his “suggested videos” traffic has dropped enormously in the month of November. In that video, he said, “If this is all intentional and YouTube is focusing away from creator-based content and less personality, well then don’t be surprised if personalities start leaving YouTube.”