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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.
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.
Seriously, who?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
No one ever got their feelings hurt and woke up the next morning with Leprosy. This 'hate speech' crusade is just ridiculous.
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.
Because when crackers say it, it's cultural appropriation.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
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.
It seems like if a DMCA takedown is so powerful then it shouldn't be blindly accepted. This is just a symptom of the problem that is the DMCA.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
"publicly acknowledge the incident"? Except for that apology video he posted shortly after ending the stream the same day.
It's fucking ludicrous to try to discuss this on a website where neither the summary, title, nor comments, can actually contain the word in question.
I'm generally surprised at how censorship has a history of complete failure, but maintains complete adherence from those who wish to police language.
Anyway, not joke he made was "inexcusable". But how could you have that discussion here?
If the country had both a history and a present-day pattern of oppressing "fucking assholes" you might have a point
No, the point is even more valid when you have a history of oppression. History has shown time and time again that the way you fight the words and idea of oppression is with better words and ideas.
You cannot get rid of entrenched attitudes like racism, sexism and other bigotry by suppressing it. All this does is hide it from view where it festers and erupts and then all of a sudden you wake up to find you have a sexist, racist Oompa Loompa as a leader.
The idea is so old there is even incorporated into a children's fairy tale. Remember sleeping beauty where the king bans all spinning wheels but she still gets pricked because the first time she sees one she is so curious about it?
I'm not excusing the language, but any gamer will tell you that when you play online you're surrounded by people saying things that would be incredibly hateful in person. You become desensitized until it just isn't even offensive anymore -- it's just some immature dude and you don't pay attention. Not only does it become not offensive to you, it just becomes "one of those stupid things people say".
And then you have that one night, maybe you're tired or angry or whatever and you're in the moment, and suddenly you say one of those things in a game. In the ~20 years I've been gaming online I know I've done it once or twice. And you immediately recognize right after that you did it, and feel stupid and not proud of yourself, but it doesn't mean you were using it in a hateful way -- you were just using some stupid common phrase the kids say in the game.
I don't care about Pewdiepie, but I can totally see how it'd happen. Language in games is different from in person. It just is.
"An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard" and yet I can't see a link to that report in this article. Also, having heard about this whole thing elsewhere I know that PewDiePie has most definitely responded already in another video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLdxuaxaQwc&ab_channel=PewDiePie
Yet another case of poor editing at /.
Note I'm not in any way, shape, or form defending PewDiePie, despite his thorough apology and admittance of guilt. The fact the n-word came out like that for me points to it being part of his cultural vocabulary.
The game company gave explicit license to everyone to stream game play and monetize it, and made no mention on that page of any limitations.
Thus, PDP owned copyright to that video, as a unique public performance, by implicit license from the game company. The DMCA takedown is false and thus actionable.
PDP should be smart and sue the ever living fuck out of the game company.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
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.
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may break your bones, but someone will always offend a feminist
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
Negro. There I said it. Can we move on?
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.
In response to Kjellberg's use of a racial slur, a number of video game players and developers have condemned the creator.
Well, yeah, God's done a lot of stupid stuff.
Oh wait, you mean the game guy? "Creator" is a bit grand for what he does.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
N*gger isn't a swear word it's a demeaning and dehumanizing word.
Curse words like fuck allude to sex, n*gger is designed to erase anything distinct about someone and reduce them to a preconceived construct designed to abstract the target instead of dealing directly with the individual on common terms.
Perhaps words can change meaning over time but there are many people alive who have had negative experiences involving that word being used as I described above, and to hear someone who you are supposed to enjoy drop that word takes a lot of the enjoyment out for certain people.
Twinstiq, game news
It seems pretty self evident that what the BLM hashtag means (at least originally) is "black lives matter as much as white lives", as fueled by the many instances of blacks being killed in questionable circumstances, with no consequences at all for those that caused the deaths.
So rebutting this by saying #AllLivesMatter comes across (to some) like saying "all houses matter", ignoring the fact that one of the houses is burning.
While I personally think 90% of social justice political correctness is bullshit, criticizing BLM while ignoring the context of where it's coming from seems misguided.
All Lives Matter. That's the core of BLM. BLM is just pointing out the lives not treated the same as others.
anti-BLM activists would have you believe that if a Black house is on fire, then All Houses Matter, and the fire department should pre-wet the neighbour house as much as the one on fire, and no fireman should enter the burning house to save anyone, as that wouldn't be fair to those in the surrounding houses.
BLM is simply stating that sometimes, the house on fire needs more attention.
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