Popular YouTuber Felix 'PewDiePie' Kjellberg has posted a video calling for an end to his 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' movement after the Christchurch mosque attacker referred to it in his livestream of the attack.
The gunman targeted two mosques in Christchurch and killed 50 people. He livestreamed the attack online, and used the phrase "subscribe to PewDiePie".
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It's a reference to a battle between Kjellberg, YouTube's top individual creator, and T-Series, a Bollywood studio, for the most-subscribed channel on YouTube.
"To have my name associated with something so unspeakably vile has affected me in more ways than I've let shown," Kjellberg says in the video.
"I just didn't want to address it right away, and I didn't want to give the terrorist more attention. I didn't want to make it about me, because I don't think it has anything to do with me. To put it plainly, I didn't want hate to win.
"But it's clear to me now the 'Subscribe to PewDiePie' movement should have ended then."
Kjellberg is accused of making racist jokes in a video called 'Congratulations', as well as a joke about genocide.
He acknowledged that some communities were offended by his tracks, but says the tracks were made "in fun, ironic jest".
Before he allegedly opened fire inside a San Diego-area synagogue in an attack on Saturday morning (local time), 19-year-old John Earnest reportedly shared his plans and a link to a hate-filled manifesto on 8chan.
There appeared to be a facetious reference to PewDiePie in his manifesto.
Newshub.
