HOME / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Twitter goes Bonkers: Pewdiepie under fire again after he mocks DEAF TikToker's nails in reaction video

The YouTuber with 111 million subscribers has since apologized for making a reaction video on Scarlet May’s TikTok content

People on the internet have heavily slammed Felix Kjellberg, more famously known as Pewdiepie, after he appeared to make fun of a deaf woman, who is also an online creator. In a July 26 video, 'My Dog Cringes at TikToks', the 32-year-old Swedish man reacted to different videos on TikTok and one of those videos was posted by Scarlet May, a deaf content creator on TikTok who uses American Sign Language and voice-narration to share her stories.

That video was posted online by Scarlet May on June 18, where she spoke about a funny incident that happened to her at a fast food drive-through. While describing her experience, she was using her hands with long, square silver gel nails. The nails were also making sounds.

ALSO READ

PewDiePie labeled 'racist', 'anti-Semitic' over leaked Spotify playlist, but fans cite his 'amazing' charity work

‘Coco’: Pewdiepie disses Cocomelon, JK Rowling and calls Tekashi 6ix9ine 'ankle monitor wearing b***h' in new song

Then a few days later, the YouTuber with 111 million subscribers featured her video in his "reaction video". Reacting to May’s clip, he said that he cannot listen “to this” since her nails were “crazy” and “distracting”. Not just that, he also brought his dog, Maya, to imitate her. He remarked: “Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya,” before holding the dog’s paws and impersonating the sign language as he added: “Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?”

The actions of Pewdiepie did not go down well with people as one of them said, “Pewdiepie being tr@sh again? What’s new?” The second user shockingly asked, “Not Pewdiepie making fun of a deaf woman???” “This woman deserves an apology from PewDiePie. Deaf people have had to endure ableism and mockery all throughout their lives. If you defend him when he's clearly in the wrong, YOU'RE part of the problem,” the third one wrote.

Culture writer Steven Underwood, tweeted: “Pewdiepie isnt ableist, he just wanted to mock a Black woman for millions of viewers for having long fingernails and speaking in her natural dialect! Its ONLY racism.” Another tweet read, “pewdiepie is a piece of shit for putting a deaf creator on tiktok in a cringe comp simply for the way she signs…”

Following the backlash, Pewdiepie reportedly removed May’s part from his video and also in a statement said, “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 poked fun of her long nails.”

“The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I've given her for years. (edit: ..and making my dog's paws move was poking at people always dancing or doing some move on tiktok, which is an ongoing theme in the whole video). Anyway honest mistake, my bad,” he added. But he apparently did not remove May from his video's thumbnail.

TOP STORIES

Who was Javorius Scott? Louisiana rapper JayDaYoungan, 24, shot dead, fans pay tributes

Is Netflix silently editing 'Stranger Things' scenes? Mag forced to rectify story after Duffer Brothers slam rumor

Meanwhile, May have also fired back at Pewdiepie in a video, saying: “He made a reaction video of one of my TikToks, making fun of y nails, my signing, with his dog and I guess at one point, my voice,” before calling his reaction "rude" and "unnecessary". The woman also stated that through her long bright nails, she’s making an attempt to normalize sign language users, before adding that “a ‘big creator’ like PewDiePie's comment has the ability to put her novel initiative ‘a million steps back.’”