PewDiePie has now managed to get another video of his kicked out of the YouTube platform. The the reason behind it is the violation of the guidelines set by the streaming platform against cyberbullying and child safety.
Earlier, PewDiePie, on its run with the Indian Bollywood behemoth T-Series on YouTube for the race to become the most subscribed YouTube channel, had created a diss track called "Bitch Lasagna", which goes without saying, while some found amusing, had several Indians fuming. That online war led to T-Series winning the battle.
Now, the video in question is a "diss track" created by Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie, which is aimed at a channel called Cocomelon, which primarily creates content for kids.
PewDiePie towed the line against YouTube's policy against use of offensive language in its platform, when he peppered the track with lines, such as "your audience is just a bunch of motherf***ing virgins." Add to that, the graphic imagery of him handing plastic weapons to kids to attack a melon didn't help either.
YouTube clarified its stance by tweeting, "To clarify, this violated two policies 1) Child safety: by looking like it was made for kids but containing inappropriate content (incl violence) 2) Harassment: we allow criticism & also diss tracks in some cases, but w/ both policies in mind, this video crossed the line."
Earlier, Matt Halprin, YouTube's vice president of trust and safety, mentioned it clearly in a blogpost: "We will not tolerate harassment and we believe the steps outlined below will contribute to our mission by making YouTube a better place for anyone to share their story or opinion."
However, YouTube runs an almost symbiotic relationship with its creators. While it tries its best to keep the platform controversy free, creators like PewDiePie, who are hugely popular, manage to flout rules every now and then. Then it becomes a war of 'will they or wouldn't they'. In this case – YouTube did.
As it is with all things Internet, copies of the now deleted video has managed to find itself on several fan channels or channels that want to cash in on the controversy. However, these rogue videos are going to be short-lived as YouTube moderators are out there, according to its Twitter statement, to wipe off all of them.
YouTube has been putting its foot down for the last few years, after massive backlash from various organisations as well as from advertisement firms against the unwholesome stuff that manages to make its way into its platform quite often. Thus, the grey area, where several creators including PewDiePie might have managed to squeeze their controversial content through earlier, is now no more.
