On Friday, December 14, a student of Hamilton International Middle School in Seattle, Washington uploaded a video to Twitter of his history teacher talking about PewDiePie. In the video, which has been re-tweeted over 13,000 times, the unidentified teacher says re-tweeing PewDiePie is the same as "prompting ignorance, racism, genocide, and anti-Semitism." And now both the teacher and Hamilton International Middle School have been receiving threats, according to the Seattle Police Department.

The video exploded in popularity over the past few days after it was featured in a video by PewDiePie himself. Since then, school security and the Seattle PD have been investigating the various threats that have been made, and so far have not found any to be "substantive." Even so, the teacher in the video has now been targeted by Internet users on 4chan and elsewhere, who have called for him to be doxxed - which means his personal information would be shared online.

All of this stems from the latest PewDiePie controversy, wherein the YouTuber recommended a smaller YouTube channel known for promoting anti-Semitism. PewDiePie, who recommended his followers watch a Death Note review by the YouTube channel in question, has since edited out his recommendation. However, that hasn't stopped many from speaking out against the YouTube star, including this history teacher and even video game developers.

Following the incident, Ubisoft developer Dianna Lora posted a tweet calling on the game industry to cut ties with PewDiePie. The wording of her tweet, where she initially called for the gaming industry to "end this dude," was perceived as a death threat by some of PewDiePie's fans. This in turn launched an anti-Ubisoft campaign online, where people were calling for boycotts of Lora's game The Division 2 as well as Ubisoft products in general.

Reports online then indicated that Lora was fired from her job at Ubisoft - a claim that seemed to be corroborated by her removing any mention of the company from her social media. However, it turned out that this wasn't the case, and Lora is still actively working on The Division 2.

While Lora was able to keep her job at Ubisoft, it's clear that this latest PewDiePie controversy has had a far-reaching impact. When one considers that the YouTube star is one of the most influential people in the world, it's not really surprising that it has come to these kinds of extremes. Whether or not PewDiePie takes steps to avoid controversies like this in the future remains to be seen, but it will be interesting to see what else comes out of the whole mess.

Source: Seattle Times