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PewDiePie: "I know I'm better than this"

The world's biggest YouTuber issues an apology for his racial slur during a livestream.

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Felix 'PewDiePie' Kjellberg is one of the most popular video game entertainers in the world, sporting over 57 million subscribers on YouTube and a similarly impressive following on Twitch and social media.

While playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds a few days ago on stream, the 27-year-old Swede dropped a severe racial slur while shooting back at an enemy.

This led to Campo Santo, the developers behind Firewatch, filing a DMCA claim against PewDiePie's Firewatch video in order to cut ties and set an example that racism is not okay, and they don't want to be associated with it.

Kjellberg has now issued an apology video, in which he states "I'm just an idiot... I know I'm better than this." Here's the full apology statement:

"Hello, I wanted to make a statement on what I said in my previous livestream.

You probably won't believe me when I say this, but whenever I go online and I hear other players use the same kind of language that I did, I always find it extremely immature and stupid, and I hate how I now personally fed into that part of gaming as well. It was something that I said in the heat of the moment, I said the worst word that I could possibly think of and it just sort of slipped out. I'm not going to make any excuses to why it did because there are no excuses for it.

I'm disappointed in myself because it seems like I've learned nothing from all these past controversies, and it's not that I think I can say or do whatever I wanted and get away with it, that's not it at all, I'm just an idiot. But that doesn't make what I said or how I said it okay. It was not okay. I'm really sorry if I offended, hurt or disappointed anyone with all of this. Being in the position that I am, I should know better.

I know I can't keep messing up like this. I owe to my audience and to myself to do better than this, because I know I'm better than this. I really want to improve myself and better myself—not just for me, but for anyone that looks up to me or anyone that's influenced by me. And that's how I want to move forward away from this. That's all I have to say, thank you for watching. Bye."

An apology is better than nothing, but what do you think of PewDiePie after this latest controversy? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.



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