Is this what’s known as biting the hand that feeds you? YouTube star PewDiePie is so pissed off at the site that he’s threatening to delete his account. The latest warning came yesterday evening, when the man otherwise known as Felix Kjellberg tweeted:
will delete tomorrow 5pm gmt
— pewdiepie (@pewdiepie) December 8, 2016
This stems from a video posted last Friday in which PewDiePie ranted for 10 minutes and then announced that he would delete his channel after he reached 50 million subscribers, which he did yesterday. In the meandering monologue he explains that he’s mad because some of his videos have been getting fewer views than normal, and is arguing that YouTube is randomly unsubscribing people from channels. “It seems that YouTube wants to promote all these random ass fucking videos that you don’t give a shit about,” he said.
At times he seems seriously distraught. In others, he appears to be making tongue-in-cheek comments. At the end, he charges that YouTube is trying to kill his page because he’s ”white.” This, we assume, is what constitutes a joke from the man who once thought it would be funny to say he joined ISIS. And, mind you, that comment came from the fact that he was annoyed that Twitter had too many verified users. Last Sunday, he uploaded another screed in which he‘s doing this for YouTubers with smaller followings.
In a comment to Variety, YouTube said: “We are in touch with YouTube creators to address their concerns.”
Update: As Kotaku reports, this was all just PewDiePie fucking with everyone and actually deleted an alternate channel. It was all just a “joke” to him.
[Note: Kotaku, like The A.V. Club, is owned by Univision Communications.]