Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie has been accused of ableism after appearing to mock a deaf woman using sign language.
The accusation came when the YouTuber, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, uploaded a video captioned, “My Dog Cringes at TikToks..” where he sat with his dog and watched clips from the social media platform.
In one section that has now been edited out of the original video, he watched a clip by TikTokker Scarlet May.
In the video, May, who is deaf, used American Sign Language and speech to recount a story about going through a drive-thru.
But before the clip had ended, PewDiePie stopped the video and said, “No, I’m not listening to this” and proceeded to mock the woman using a distorted voice and using his dog’s paws to imitate her signing.
Before it had been edited out, a clip of the moment was captured and shared on social media, with one person on Twitter writing: “Not Pewdiepie making fun of a deaf woman???”
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u201cNot Pewdiepie making fun of a deaf woman???u201d
— ud835udc70ud835udc84ud835udc86ud835udc85 (@ud835udc70ud835udc84ud835udc86ud835udc85)
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One person wrote: “how hard is it to not make content based on demeaning other people, like i will never see the appeal in watching videos solely about mocking and poking fun at others who didn’t do anything to deserve it.”
u201chow hard is it to not make content based on demeaning other people, like i will never see the appeal in watching videos solely about mocking and poking fun at others who didnt do anything to deserve itu201d
— Blimblam (@Blimblam)
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Another said: “just a very weird, nasty and miserable person.”
u201cjust a very weird, nasty and miserable personu201d
— belem (@belem)
1658992668
Someone else commented: “he been problematic for YEARS how are y’all suprised.”
u201che been problematic for YEARS how are yu2019all suprisedu201d
— tyrant (@tyrant)
1658978372
In a comment underneath the YouTube video, PewDiePie wrote: “Hey, just to clear a few things up: I edited out the clip with the girl that has the long nails. Had no clue she was deaf, but kinda dumb of me to not realize…
“Still watching through the clip I only …….
Source: https://www.indy100.com/viral/pewdiepie-mock-deaf-woman-tiktok