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Disney drops PewDiePie

The Walt Disney Company has cut ties with PewDiePie, the world’s highest paid YouTube star, following accusations that he spread anti-Semitic messages in his videos.

YouTube's Swedish web comedian PewDiePie

YouTube’s Swedish web comedian PewDiePie

PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, is associated with Disney-owned YouTube network Maker Studios and draws several billion views per month to his channel.

But Disney has now cut ties with the Swede after several videos he released were deemed to contain Nazi references or anti-Semitic imagery.

In one video, which has now been deleted from his channel, Kjellberg paid two Indians to hold up a sign that read ‘Death to all Jews.’

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

Kjellberg, who reportedly made US$15m through YouTube in 2016, has accepted the content was offensive but denied supporting “any kind of hateful attitudes.”

He said: “I was trying to show how crazy the modern world is, specifically some of the services available online” and that people “would do anything for $5.”

Kjellberg has previously been suspended from Twitter after making jokes about so-called Islamic State.

In related news, Disney EMEA has unveiled a new web series that is co-created by comedian Miranda Hart, writer Rob Evans and producer Jo Sargent.

So Sammy is billed as a quirky drama comedy and is the first ever series produced for the Disney Channel app. It will make its debut this Saturday.

The new series marks Hart’s first venture into children’s television and will be produced by King Bert Productions, the company she launched in 2014 with David Walliams and Sargent.

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