Over 69 thousand people (or bots) signed a petition which calls to ban a prominent YouTuber PewDiePie. PewDiePie has the biggest, most popular, YouTube channel despite not being a corporate entity.
His ongoing battle against T-Series, an Indian media company uploading music and culture videos to YouTube, has been one of the main entertainments in the global culture ecosphere. This competition for popularity is a rally sign for millions of internet users who want an individual to beat a corporation. It is a fun rivalry that attracted media attention.
Unfortunately, amongst people who exploited PewDiePie and his popularity was the perpetrator of the Christchurch shooting.
Radical leftists are going crazy
After the shooting, PewDiePie tweeted “Just heard news of the devastating reports from New Zealand Christchurch. I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affected by this tragedy.”
This tweet was a response to the news that the shooter mentioned “subscribe to PewDiePie” meme in his infamous manifesto.
While centrists, moderate lefts, and right-wingers did not pay any attention to the insertion of PewDiePie’s name in the manifesto, many liberals started blaming the YouTuber for the shooting.
It sounds crazy that one of the most positive personalities on YouTube known for his uplifting behavior and entertaining videos is blamed for a horrific incident. It seems that Maria Ruiz who started the petition is not aware of the “guilt by association” fallacy.
The troll attempt from a radical terrorist somehow managed to trigger people who he wanted to be triggered. The craziest part of the left wing jumped on the bait and presented a mere mention of a famous public figure as evidence that PewDiePie is somehow a white supremacist and promotes radical right-wing ideas.
While even left-leaning news sources reported that the inclusion of the “subscribe to PewDiePie” meme into the terrorist’s manifesto was just an attempt to escalate the culture war, over 69K people are craving for that escalation playing right into the shooter’s hands.
