PewDiePie recently had an encounter with the police that could have ended badly. In this article, we take a look at similar PewDiePie controversies that got the Youtuber into big oopsies.
PewDiePie Controversies
PewDiePie Gets A Vist From The Police Because Of Illegal Weapons
PewDiePie had an encounter with the police that could have turned ugly.
In a video titled “I bought forbidden Wish Items (Cops Came To My House Big Oopsie” uploaded on March 3, 2022, Felix Kjellberg shared a story on how a Wish.com purchase went wrong. PewDiePie was producing his regular content where he would purchase weird stuff on Wish.com and show it to his viewers. However, this time, his weird buys included an actual weapon called a “balisong”, a type of a butterfly knife. Having this weapon imported and delivered to his home in the UK earned him a visit from the police. The Swedish-born YouTube Star said he was surprised by the visit because, back home in Sweden, the “balisong is a tool, not a weapon.” However, the police did end up visiting his home because a UK Law says that imported weapons, which the UK police considered the balisong, may be seized by authorities.
Thankfully, no charges were made and the police even let PewDiePie keep the butterfly knife, allowing him to show it off in the video. Although he shared how fun it is to play with, he ended this portion of the video asking his fans not to attempt to buy a balisong, as it could seriously get them into trouble.
PewDiePie Faced Tax Evasion Allegations
PewDiePie was once rumored to be evading paying his taxes.
One article titled “GREED: How PewDiePie Is Trying To Dodge His Taxes” published by Input Mag in 2021 alleged that Felix Kjellberg was restructuring his holding company, PewDiePie UK Ltd., in order to pay fewer taxes to the UK government. The article says:
“YouTube’s most-followed independent creator has appointed as directors of his UK company two people tied to a Cyprus law firm that provides “innovative and practical solutions to legal, financial and taxation issues”.”
Since 2019, Kjellberg has been the sole director of PewDiePie UK Ltd. However, his appointment of Andreas Menelaou and Kseniia Milevska as co-directors was seen as a move toward tax evasion. The article pointed out that the two were based in Cyprus, and used a Cyprus address in their dealings with the YouTuber. Tax rates between Cyprus and the UK would allow PewDiePie's company to save up to 12.5% in corporation taxes.
These allegations never went too far, as there was not enough evidence to support the conjecture that PewDiePie was trying to move his company's operations outside of the UK solely to avoid paying his dues. However, the controversy did get picked up by major publications at the time and for a while, PewDiePie's name was associated with a growing list of rich people avoiding tax payments.
PewDiePie's Political Views Got Him Into Controversies
PewDiePie is a very opinionated and vocal person. Whether he likes it or not, his words will be interpreted by viewers in any way they like. Because of this, there have been times when the popular YouTuber received criticism for his alleged right-wing political views and Anti-Semitic attitude.
These allegations were at their peak in 2018 when a New York Times article titled “YouTube's Monster: PewDiePie and His Populist Revolt” was published. The article detailed how PewDiePie was slowly becoming a banner figure by alt-right extremists. “Over time,” the article says, “he grew into an unlikely, disorienting, and insistently unserious political identity: He became YouTube's very own populist reactionary.”
Some would even go as far as saying that PewDiePie's content amplified Anti-Semitic views, which happened when PewDiePie endorsed a YouTube channel that produced content he liked and wanted to share to fans. The problem was that, unbeknownst to PewDiePie (at least, according to him), the YouTube channel he shared actually had videos with Anti-Semitic themes. He inadvertently led some of his followers to a channel that could have impressed Anti-Semitic views on them.
Finally, things finally exploded when an alt-right shooter in New Zealand invoked PewDiePie's name before committing his horrendous crime. The racially motivated hate crime resulted in 40 deaths and 5 injured. PewDiePie quickly denounced the act, saying that he was sickened by what the criminal did, and distanced himself from associations with extremists.
Is PewDiePie Racist?
Finally, we are at the part of the article where PewDiePie almost lost his platform.
Back in September 2017, PewDiePie uttered a racial slur in a now-deleted video. He was playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and called his enemy a racial slur when his shots didn't kill his enemy immediately, allowing them to take cover. PewDiePie immediately realized what he said and apologized on stream, but this wasn't enough to assuage his viewers. The media quickly picked up on the incident and reported on PewDiePie's use of the slur, making him the subject of mainstream media for weeks. The fact that PewDiePie didn't consider not uploading the video, knowing that he uttered a racial slur, ended up being his biggest mistake.
This incident led to many of PewDiePie's sponsors cutting ties with him, which then led to the YouTuber's YouTube Red series Scare PewDiePie getting canceled.
Apart from this, PewDiePie once used Fiverr to commission two men to hold up a placard with anti-semitic messaging and shoot a video out of it. PewDiePie's video received massive backlash, and he was accused of normalizing anti-semitic views, making it seem okay to his viewers. PewDiePie defended himself saying that he was simply showing how ridiculous the website Fiverr was and that he honestly thought that his request would be declined. Again, the fact that PewDiePie didn't consider not uploading the video, knowing that it had racially-insensitive content, led to this controversy.
What is PewDiePie Up To Nowadays?
PewDiePie is no stranger to controversies, and while he's been more careful with his words and actions now that every action he makes gets scrutinized by the media, there is still occasional slip-ups here and there. However, PewDiePie hasn't gotten himself into big trouble the same way his actions did back in 2017 to 2019. Nowadays, PewDiePie has been taking a lot of breaks away from YouTube, which is something different from his previous style where he would never miss a single day of uploading a new video on YouTube. These breaks don't cool down his popularity, though, as his fans would keep welcoming him back warmly every time he resumes his uploads.
PewDiePie also just reached a major milestone in life, having moved to Japan after two years of trying. He and his wife Marzia, and their two pugs Edgar and Maya, finally arrived in Japan in May 2022, two years after he announced on his channel their desire to move to Japan. This isn't a surprise for his fans, as he's big into Japanese culture and would have moved to Japan already two years ago had the global health crisis did not happen. His tear-jerking reaction video documented their trip to Japan, and how heart-warming it was for them that his fans were cheering them on in their bid to relocate to Japan over the past two years. PewDiePie shared how his 22-lbs. dog made the trip harder for them, as no airline would allow passengers to carry pets heavier than 20-lbs. They even had to apply for vaccines and booster shots for their dogs. But now that they've overcome these challenges, he shared how grateful he is now that he's in Japan, and how excited he is for this new chapter in his and his wife's lives.
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