Disney's Maker Studios severed ties with PewDiePie, real name Felix Kjellberg, on February 13, 2017, after The Wall Street Journal reported nine videos containing antisemitic jokes or Nazi imagery. YouTube followed within a day, canceling a planned second season of "Scare PewDiePie" and removing his channel from Google Preferred. The case remains the precedent for brand safety as a distinct creator risk category.
What is the PewDiePie crisis scorecard?
| Field | PewDiePie and Disney, February 2017 |
|---|
| Trigger | February 13, 2017: The Wall Street Journal reported that Kjellberg had posted nine videos since August 2016 with antisemitic jokes or Nazi imagery. |
| Hours to first public statement | Same day. Maker Studios told the Journal on February 13 that it was ending its affiliation. The exact hour is not publicly reported. |
| Response format | Written statement from Maker Studios to the Journal. YouTube confirmed its actions to reporters through a spokesperson on February 14. Kjellberg had posted on Tumblr the day before the Journal report. |
| Measurable damage | Lost his Maker Studios affiliation, the second season of "Scare PewDiePie," and his place in Google Preferred. Dollar losses are not publicly reported. |
| Recovery time | The channel stayed on YouTube. Recovery time is not publicly reported. |
| Verdict | Partial. He kept his channel and audience but lost his network deal, his YouTube Red series, and premium ad placement. |
| Lesson for a PR team | A reporter's review of a creator's full back catalog can end a corporate partnership in one day, so audit the pattern before a journalist does. |
| Sources | NPR and TechCrunch, February 14, 2017; Tubefilter, February 14, 2017; The Daily Dot, February 2017. Last checked October 6, 2026. |
What did the Wall Street Journal report find?
The Journal reported that Kjellberg had posted nine videos since August 2016 that included antisemitic jokes or Nazi imagery, according to NPR's summary of the report. One video showed two men holding a sign reading "Death to All Jews," per The Daily Dot. Kjellberg was then the most-subscribed creator on YouTube, with more than 53 million subscribers, according to TechCrunch.
The review covered a stretch of months, not a single video. That distinction is central to how the case is studied: Disney was responding to a documented pattern that one investigation surfaced all at once. Three of the nine videos had been deleted by the time NPR reported, apparently by Kjellberg himself.
How did Disney respond, and how fast?
Maker Studios told the Journal on February 13, 2017, the same day the Journal contacted Disney, that it was severing ties. The company said Kjellberg had built a following by being provocative and irreverent but that "he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate."
Disney's same-day response set a speed benchmark that predates today's social-media-driven crisis cycles. Compare the platform-side timeline in the Logan Paul suicide forest case, where the creator's partners and the platform moved on different clocks.
Why did YouTube add its own penalty on top of Disney's?
YouTube canceled the second season of "Scare PewDiePie," one of the higher-profile originals on its YouTube Red subscription service, and removed Kjellberg's channel from Google Preferred, a spokesperson told TechCrunch on February 14, 2017. The channel stayed up and could still run ads, but those ads would no longer fetch top dollar because of the Preferred removal, TechCrunch reported.
The platform's decision was procedurally separate from Disney's. A management partner's exit did not resolve a creator's exposure to the platform itself, a sequence also visible across this site's crisis PR coverage.
What was the timeline?
- August 2016 onward: Nine videos with antisemitic jokes or Nazi imagery are posted, per the Journal's review.
- February 12, 2017: Kjellberg publishes a Tumblr post defending his work, per The Daily Dot.
- February 13, 2017: The Wall Street Journal publishes its report, and Maker Studios says it is ending its affiliation with Kjellberg.
- February 14, 2017: YouTube cancels "Scare PewDiePie" season two and removes the channel from Google Preferred.
What did the split cost beyond the headline?
Kjellberg's relationship with Disney was more than a sponsorship. Maker Studios had bought into his channel through Revelmode, a joint venture the two formed in 2016 to produce videos, apps, and merchandise, according to Tubefilter. Ending the affiliation therefore removed a business partner, not only a paycheck.
How did Kjellberg respond afterward?
Kjellberg initially defended the content as jokes. In a video response days later, he acknowledged that the joke in question went too far while blaming the media for misrepresenting him, according to a February 17, 2017 update from WDWInfo.
Why is this the precedent case for brand safety?
Before this case, brand safety mostly described where an ad might appear next to objectionable footage. The PewDiePie split showed that a creator's own recurring content could end a relationship with a major media company in a single day. For a comms team, the practical step is a documented review of a creator partner's full catalog, so the pattern is found internally rather than by a reporter.
For the full set of creator cases scored on the same fields, see the crisis communications case comparison hub, and for the gap between creators and institutional crisis support, see the creator crisis gap analysis.
