PewDiePie Is Inexcusable But DMCA Takedowns Are Not the Way To Fight Him (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Felix Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, is the most popular YouTuber in the world. He's gotten himself into another controversy, this time for shouting the n-word while livestreaming a video game. The 27-year-old Swede has repeatedly been criticized for hate speech, and just last month said he would no longer make Nazi jokes after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent. But while playing PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on Sunday, Kjellberg, who has over 57 million subscribers on YouTube, called another player the n-word before erupting into laughter. "What a fucking n****r," he said. "Jeez, oh my god. What the fuck? Sorry, but what the fuck? What a fucking asshole. I don't mean that in a bad way." Kjellberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and has yet to publicly acknowledge the incident.

In response to Kjellberg's use of a racial slur, a number of video game players and developers have condemned the creator. Sean Vanaman, the co-founder of video game company Campo Santo, decided to use copyright law to push back against Kjellberg. On Twitter, he said he was filing a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown request against the famous YouTuber regarding a video in which Kjellberg plays Campo Santo's game Firewatch. There are compelling reasons to [remove hate speech from major internet platforms] by any means necessary, but DMCA overreach is among the least compelling options, considering that it unilaterally puts power into the hands of what are essentially uninvolved parties and allows for little arbitration or defense on the part of those who have their content removed.

Comments

Oh please

[Anonymous Coward]

How is what PewDiePie said "inexcusable?" Ever said something in a heated moment you regret later? That's all the happened. A slip of the tongue. It happens. Fucking deal with it.

Oh, wait, I accidentally swore. Clearly all my YouTube videos should have DMCA take-downs against them over a single fleeting expletive.

You may not like PewDiePie, but stop trying to pretend he did anything objectionable. He didn't.

Re:Oh please

[Anonymous Coward]

>It's just that it reveals who you really are...

Yeah, someone who doesn't give half a fuck about the left's ever-escalating PC insanity. Once you start rioting over pronouns, you lose all reasonable expectation that anyone will take you seriously ever again.

It's. A. Fucking. Word.

When he starts calling for lynchings or the return of slavery then I'll get upset.

Re: Oh please

[piojo]

Maybe if he hadn't previously spouted racist, white supremacist nonsense, it would be excusable.

The thing is, he didn't. If you're referring to the little media outrage about him some months ago, that was all cherry-picked to demonstrate something quite different than what he actually said. He published a video making fun of neo-nazis, and someone cut it to look like something else entirely.

It's because of that episode that I'm *more* inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's been targeted by false accusations before, so isn't it likely there's some spin on the story this time? (For example, is the word "n****r" used the same way in his country as it is in the US? If not, that would be one potential fact that was left out of the story. I know "cunt" is used much differently in some parts of the UK, and it would be wrong to assume "n****r" has exactly the same baggage in Sweden as in the US.)

Re:Oh please

[Kjella]

It's not that they're calling you something derogatory that gets people riled up. It's that by the derogatory use they're implying that the referenced class or group of people is inferior or less desirable. You can't insult somebody by saying "you cry like a girl" unless when and how girls cry is humiliating. I doubt "God, you're such a pussy" refers to you being a cat but rather a member of the weaker sex. Unlike men, who "got balls". And calling someone a faggot or cocksucker isn't an insult unless there's something wrong about being a homosexual. Using the word n1gger implies something about the value of black people.

Of course you could try to dodge that and say it's a behavior not a racial/ethnic/religious/sexual slur, that being a cunt isn't directly related to being female, being a dick isn't directly related to being male and being a n1gger isn't directly related to being black, which is how you get "white n1ggers" = the Irish and such. But it usually ends up expanding on an existing slur like you may not look like a n1gger but you sure act like one/are one on the inside rather than exclude anyone or remove the underlying implication. Though that could of course be intentionally used for sarcasm or irony, like a black man saying I might look like a n1gger but you act like one.

Is it getting blown out of all proportions? I think so. But if anyone takes a huge offense to a position being called a chairMAN even though it can be filled by a man or a woman, eh... whatever. For me it's a little bit of semantics and a low-priority TODO, for others it seem like anyone not willing to drop everything else they're doing to stop this misogyny right now is with the patriarchy and the good old boys club and secretly want women back in the kitchen and popping out babies. Call anyone a n1gger is not nice, but I have the feeling most people use these insults from habit or simply to "kick where it hurts" rather than any real bigotry. Like if you really stub your toe and go like "fuck damn shit crap ow ow ow" at nothing, at least that's how I think when someone rants of half a dozen swear words in a row...

Inexcusable? Says who?

[Anonymous Coward]

PewDiePie got angry during a game and cursed. There really is no issue involved.

The real racists out there are incredibly casual about it. They aren't trying to be shocking for humor or to get a reaction (some of whom try too hard and it's obvious). It's just a part of their mind and it can't be separated.

Re:Not advocating hate speech, but...

[quantaman]

I'm not advocating hate speech, but why is there the need to censor "n****r" when "fucking asshole" was printed in plaintext?

These are all just words. It's no different than "chink" or "beaner". By censoring them we elevate their status and perpetuate the undesirable meaning behind them. It's just stupid.

Even slashdot required me to censor it to post. wtf.

For "n****r" vs "fucking asshole", fucking assholes aren't really a distinct class of people, and to the extent they are they have a lot of control over whether they're a "fucking asshole" or not.

As for the other racial slurs, the percentage of black Americans coupled with the history of anti-black racism make anti-black racism an unusually taboo subject in the US.

On a more general note, if you freak out every time rules are applied inconsistently in the English language you're just end up looking like a fucking asshole.

Re: Who gives a shit?

[aardvarkjoe]

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Which means he has every right to utilize DMCA to have an account removed, by Slashdot's own fucking admission.

I don't see anything in there that says that you have permission to misuse the DMCA to censor trolls.

For anyone who is curious (I looked it up, since I was), apparently somebody registered a 'cdreimer' account to troll creimer. This isn't terribly surprising, because he not only posts a lot of nonsense, but also engages in flamewars with trolls, which is the one sure way to get more people to troll you. Instead of acting like an adult and ignoring the troll, apparently he filed a DMCA complaint to get the cdreimer account removed.

Since that account wasn't infringing upon his copyrights, that is of course complete bull.

Re:You're right

[Bert64]

Oh boo hoo, so you had it tough growing up.
Are you gonna cry about it? or are you gonna try and do something about it? Complaining won't improve your situation, it will only make people resent you.

You think there aren't whites, asians or other ethnicities who've had it hard? There's been plenty of war in europe, serbia a few years ago, ukraine now, eastern europe is fairly impoverished, several countries in the middle east are active warzones right now and countries in asia are or were recently under totalitarian rule. Many people would love to have a stable job where the worst that happens is they get called something.

In the west people have equality of opportunity, and there are many examples of highly successful black people in america and other countries. If you choose not to take advantages of the opportunities available that's entirely your own fault, there are also plenty of extremely poor whites in america who have failed to take advantage of the opportunities available to them - again entirely their own fault.

You have equality of opportunity, but if you want equality of outcome you need to make an effort yourself, you can't expect to have everything handed to you on a plate.

Re:#BLACKLIVESMATTER

[MoarSauce123]

Black lives matter never implied that other lives do not matter. That aspect is only implied by those who do not want to or have not understood what that movement is about.