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YouTuber PewDiePie is receiving immense backlash on social media after he allegedly mocked a deaf TikToker in his latest video. Since then, the internet has relentlessly been slamming the creator on Twitter and he has been called out for being an ableist as people attempt to cancel him.
The Swedish YouTuber is one of the biggest video creators on YouTube. In his latest video titled - My Dog Cringes at TikToks, the 32-year-old reacts to videos which he deems to be “cringe” along with his dog, Maya.
In one of the many videos, PewDiePie reacts to TikTok creator Scarlet May’s video. In the video, the 21-year-old influencer can be seen recounting a humorous encounter at a fast food drive-thru. She is seen narrating the experience using sign language with her long silver acrylic nails.
While watching the video, the YouTuber cuts it short and says:
“I'm not listening to this. Look, she has your crazy nails, Maya!”
He then goes on to hold his dog's paws with both hands and wave them around, in an apparent mockery of the TikToker's American sign language. He also adds:
“Sorry, are my nails distracting you guys?”
Needless to say, PewDiePie has received immense backlash for the video and has since removed the clip of him reacting to Scarlet May. He also tried to hide his wrongdoing but followers had already screen-recorded the video and circulated it across social media platforms.
Who is Scarlet May? TikTok creator responds to PewDiePie’s most recent video
Born on January 6, 2001, Scarlet May is a 21-year-old creator who has more than 6.2 million followers on TikTok. Her followers love her "story time" videos that often show off her elaborate manicures. The TikToker is best known for posting videos in both spoken and American sign language.
The Rockford, Illinois-native created her account in early 2020. One of her most popular videos includes performing the Renegade dance to K Camp’s Lottery. Her Deaf Kardashians series also helped her gain immense traction on her profile.
After PewDiePie's reaction to her TikTok went viral, May's video gained massive traction online. She also addressed the clip on Wednesday, through a TikTok video, which she captioned:
“we all make mistakes hopefully he learns from this.”
In the video, she answered the questions that people had, presumably been asking her. 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.”
The 21-year-old also added that if a person had been narrating the story with long nails without having to sign, they wouldn't have been made fun of and continued to say:
“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.”
May also directly addressed the YouTuber and said that he doesn't get to "just mock deaf people who have been struggling for years.”
Meanwhile, PewDiePie hadn't responded to the backlash at the time of writing this article.
