Firewatch Creator Pledges DMCA Action Against PewDiePie for Use of Racial Slur

YouTube celebrity and probable racist Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg is under fire once again. While livestreaming a play session of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, Kjellberg used a racial slur as he had trouble shooting an opposing player on a bridge. The YouTuber tries to amend “fucking n—er” to “fucking asshole” before then attempting to laugh it off. Needless to say, the videogaming community has responded appropriately—with anger and condemnation.

As community members fire off on forums like NeoGAF, co-founder of Campo Santo and creator of Firewatch Sean Vanaman is hoping to set an example for game developers, taking a stand against PewDiePie in a series of tweets, beginning with this claim:

We’re filing a DMCA takedown of PewDiePie’s Firewatch content and any future Campo Santo games.

— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017

Vanaman continues, saying:

I am sick of this child getting more and more chances to make money off of what we make.

— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017

He’s worse than a closeted racist: he’s a propagator of despicable garbage that does real damage to the culture around this industry.

— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017

In response to accusations that developers like Vanaman hate content creators on the web, Vanaman clarified that he “loves streamers,” but game developers should exercise caution when they make money off of a popular public figure who spews anti-Semitic and racist language.

Nevertheless, Vanaman is still opposed by some Twitter users who claim that this is an abuse of the DMCA and an attack on the “freedom of speech and expression” that the far-right seems to love so much. The developer fires back:

Freedom of speech is freedom of prosecution
His stream is not commentary, it is ad growth for his brand
Our game on his channel =endorsement

— Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) September 10, 2017

Meanwhile, PewDiePie himself has still not acknowledged the incident through YouTube or social media streams. After already losing out on a deal with YouTube and Disney’s Maker Studios, who knows what the streamer has further left to lose from his casual racism. The incident from the now-deleted video, which is not safe for work and contains offensive language, can be found here.