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Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie apologized after receiving backlash for mocking a deaf TikToker in his latest reaction video. In an 11-minute video on the platform titled My Dog Cringes At TikToks, he shared different videos which he considered cringing.
One of those clips was of deaf TikToker Scarlett May, who uses sign language to communicate with her 6.2 million strong followers. She was seen sporting long acrylic nails. Reacting to the video, along with his dog Maya, the 32-year-old cut the clip short, saying,
"I'm not listening to this."
Then, speaking to his dog, he said:
"Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya!"
He then played with the dog's paws and noted in an imitating manner,
Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?”
As expected, this particular snippet from his video went viral and received immense backlash and criticism from citizens for his ableist behavior and for making fun of a deaf person on a public platform.
Finding himself on the receiving end of the backlash, the popular YouTuber decided to share his side of the story and issue an apology, claiming that he was unaware that Scarlet May was deaf and only intended to mock her nails. Clearing the air in the comments section of his YouTube video, he said:
“Hey, just to clear a few things up: I edited out the clip with the girl that has the long nails. Had no clue she was deaf, but kinda dumb of me to not realise. Still watching through the clip, I only poked fun of her long nails. The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I've given her for years.
He continued,
Anyway, honest mistake, my bad
Internet users slam PewDiePie for mocking Scarlet May
Before PewDiePie could put his defense forward, netizens slammed the YouTuber for being insensitive and poking fun at someone with a disability. Some users commented that he is a repeat offender and cannot get away with it all the time.
Some people seem to defend him and ask users not to take everything he does so seriously.
Scarlet May takes to TikTok to respond to PewDiePie's reaction video
The 21-year-old content creator took to TikTok to react to the clip shared by PewDiePie. She captioned the TikTok video, saying,
"We all make mistakes, hopefully he learns from this."
Using sign language and English narration, she said that though she was not surprised, she thought the video was "weird" and "very unnecessary."
Answering her comments on what she thought about the entire issue, she noted:
How do I feel? I feel like it was very weird, very unnecessary but at the same time I’m not surprised, I’m used to it. It’s been a big issue in the deaf community that I’ve been trying to normalise and put out, is that using nails while signing is normal, it’s okay. But then a big creator comes on here and puts us a million steps back, so it’s very frustrating.”
She pointed out that the YouTuber did not even care enough to listen to what her video was about because she was using sign language. She continued:
But because I have to sign to communicate and have long nails, he stopped the video after two seconds and didn’t even listen to the story, and then after that, proceeded to make fun of me with his dog.”
She concluded the video by stating that she was willing to give PewDiePie the benefit of the doubt, and even if he was unaware of her disability back then, he is aware of it now.
