It hasn’t been a great month for popular YouTuber PewDiePie. Then again, it’s tough to still be funny after a far-right terrorist murders fifty people while yelling “Subscribe to PewDiePie!” Then there was also the fact that the streamer was flirting with right-wing demagogues and made numerous anti-Semitic slurs and white supremacist references.
A lot of people have stopped giving him the benefit of the doubt, too, with one fan saying: “Paying poor people to hold up a “Death to all Jews” sign, saying the N-word on a stream, promoting Ben Shapiro and the Ralph Retort, and his recent crap? How many times does this need to happen for people to see it?” All this has led to a petition which aims to ban PewDiePie from Apex Legends.
The popular battle royale title has rocketed in popularity over the last few months, but creator Gabe V believes that PewDiePie shouldn’t be allowed to play the game, writing:
“HE RUINED EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES! keep him away from a great game like Apex Legends. The game has so much more to give before it dies and … pewdiepie playing the game would be a death sentence.”
While he’s certainly entitled to his own opinion, it looks like Mr. V’s petition didn’t quite take off in the way that he no doubt hoped it would. Not only did it not even manage to break the 300 signature mark, but it was also taken down by Change.org for being in violation of the posting policy. Suffice it to say, it was an epic fail in every sense of the term.
Then again, even if it had hit its goal of 30,000 signatures, it’s not like EA or Respawn Entertainment would’ve actually banned PewDiePie from Apex Legends. As far as we can tell, he doesn’t even seem to be that into the game, as he hasn’t streamed himself playing it yet nor has he even spoken about it all that much. In any case, it looks as if the YouTuber remains free to get in on the fun if he so chooses.