YouTuber PewDiePie pledged to donate $70,000 USD to anti-discriminatory charity the Anti-Defamation league earlier in the week but has taken to a video today to say that offer has been rescinded.
In a video earlier this week, Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg said he had “finally come to terms with the responsibility I have as a creator,” and declared that the donation was a good way to address concerns he was an anti-Semite.
In a new video today, Kjellberg said the decision to donate wasn’t the right one.
“When we were planning the collaboration, we thought it would be nice to donate to a charity as a way to celebrate. I made the mistake of picking a charity I was advised instead of picking a charity I’m personally passionate about, which is 100 per cent my fault,” he said.
“When I uploaded the video talking about the charity, it was very brief. People could tell something was up. The whole internet just didn’t believe it. ‘Why is he donating to this charity? Look at his face.’ Full conspiracy mode. It was very interesting to watch that unfold.”
While Kjellberg continued to explain his decision to rescind the donation, he didn’t detail a new plan moving forward.
“I saw it as an opportunity to put an end to these alt-right claims that have been thrown against me. It wasn’t to try and clear my name or say grace. If it was, I would have done it years ago. But after the Christchurch tragedy, I felt a responsibility to do something about it, because it’s no longer just about me. It affected other people in a way, and I’m not ok with that,” he continued, referring to criticism levelled against him after what could be described as anti-Semitic behaviours were linked to a hate crime shooting that took place in New Zealand earlier this year.
“I’ve struggled to figure out how to do that, but this was not the right way to go about it. I knew it wasn’t perfect, but I also didn’t know a lot of things that surfaced throughout this whole thing about the charity that doesn’t fit at all. So I understand why people had concerns about it.
“These are things I would have known myself if I had just taken my time… It really doesn’t feel genuine for me to proceed with the donation at this point, and I instead wanted to actually take my time and keep the intent that I had, but do it with the right charity and doing it properly. I just wanted to make that clear. I’m sorry for all the confusion, and I’m sorry for messing this up. That’s what I do!”
If you’d like to donate to the Anti-Defamation League in PewDiePie’s absence, you can do so here.
Update: We referred to the ADL as an anti-Semitic charity, when in actual fact, it’s an anti-anti-Semitic charity. We’ve changed this post’s title to ‘anti-discriminatory’ to reflect that.
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