PewdiePie issues an apology for mocking a deaf TikTok creator

The apology 

Youtuber and Swedish gamer PewdiePie recently issued an apology after facing quite a lot of backlash for appearing to mock a TikTok content creator who is deaf.

The huge YouTuber 

PewdiePie is not a rookie YouTuber but has been there on the platform since the starting years of its boom. He also has garnered around 111 million subscribers on the platform.

It's also not the first time the 32-year-old Youtuber has caused a stir rather he has caused several controversies over the years. Recently, he posted a video on his channel titled "My Dog Cringes at TikToks," in which he shared his reaction to several videos he found "cringe."

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Scarlet May 

pewdiepie whose real name stands for Felix Kjellberg included one of the clips from Tiktok Scarlet May’s TikTok in his compilation video. The footage garnered around 6.2 million views on TikTok even though it was deleted from the YouTuber’s post. In the video, he utilized both English and American Sign Language from her videos.

Storytime 

pewdiepie uploaded a "story time" video May posted on July 18 under the since-deleted section of the YouTube video, in which she described her experience in a drive-thru while sporting one of her signature manicures.

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The video 

“I'm not listening to this," is what PewDiePie said after starting to watch the video, a source outlet reported. He then commented on her nails, saying to his dog, "Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya," before appearing to imitate sign language in the video. "Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?" he said.

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The pinned comment 

pewdiepie did not understand his mistake until it was pointed out to him. In a pinned comment on his YouTube video, PewDiePie apologized, saying he "had no clue she was deaf but kinda dumb of me to not realize.

"Still watching through the clip I only poked fun at her long nails," he continued, adding that "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 wrote, noting that he had edited out the clip of May.

Backlash 

pewdiepie seemingly garnered a lot of attention along with loads of backlash for his clip. A lot of YouTube viewers commented and called him out. One said that the woman in the video was not trying to be extra, but rather was signing because she is deaf while another added that a deaf person signing is considered a ‘tik tok cringe’ now.

Other commenters came to the YouTuber's defense, writing that they believed he was unaware she was deaf and was just making fun of her nails, sentiments which he shared in his apology.

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The acknowledgment 

Scarlet May who was mocked by PewdiePie went on to acknowledge his video on TikTok. She revealed that since the controversy has been blowing her phone up she thought it is high time to talk about it.

She revealed that it is extremely weird but unnecessary at the same time which she is not surprised about rather is used to it. May shared that "using nails while signing" has "been a big issue in the deaf community," and is something she's actively "trying to normalize." She also added that a big creator like him is putting them a million steps back which is very frustrating.

She also talked about her nails and said that a lot of people do not like her nails and it's okay that they don’t and it can also be that he did not know about sign language.

He had to 

She also went on to say that if PewdiePie was unaware of the situation he had to admit his mistake. "You don't just get to mock deaf people who've already been struggling for years with people like you and go about your day as nothing happened," she added, ultimately ending the post by saying, "We all live and learn. If he did not know before he knows now.

"In a comment posted shortly after her video, May acknowledged that PewDiePie eventually did completely take her out of the video.” A good way to own up to things" she wrote alongside the post, which she captioned, "we all make mistakes hopefully he learns from this."