YouTuber PewDiePie Banned In China For Pooh Jokes About President Xi
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PewDiePie, the YouTube blogger with more than 100 million subscribers worldwide, has been banned in China, joining Comedy Central’s South Park and the German DJ Zedd on a recent and growing list of artists and commentators to fall afoul of Chinese authorities since a Houston Rockets executive expressed support for Hong Kong rebels and ignited a firestorm.
The 29-year-old UK-based PewDiePie (real name: Felix Kjellberg) has posted a nearly-17-minute video on YouTube (watch it below) announcing that he’d been deleted from Chinese websites after posting a video last week supporting South Park and joining in the President Xi-looks-like-Winnie the Pooh memes.
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“Well boys, we did it,” PewDiePie says, gleefully, in the new video. “I’m banned from China…After I spoke about the Hong Kong protests and showed their leader being mocked for looking like Winnie the Pooh, I got banned from China.”
“Now if you search anything PewDiePie-related on any Reddit related forum in China or a YouTube related video, it will just be completely blank. I’m laughing, but I’m sorry if you’re in China and try to watch my videos. That kind of sucks.”
The Swedish-born video blogger said he knew his banning “was going to happen” after Zedd was banned “because he liked a South Park tweet.”
“Obviously me talking about the Hong Kong memes was going to get me banned,” he said. In addition to joining in the Pooh mockery, PewDiePie last week slammed companies that cave to China’s censorship demands.
Last week, Zedd was banned for liking a tweet from a South Park tweet. The long-running Comedy Central series has been targeted by China since its recent Band in China episode. Also last week, director Quentin Tarantino made news with his refusal to trim scenes from his Once Upon A Time In Hollywood to suit China’s demands.
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