YouTube Star PewDiePie has apologized for the anti-semitic jokes that caused Maker Studios and YouTube to drop him this past week, but says the media took his comments out of context.
“I’m sorry for the words that I used, as I know they offended people,” he said in a video posted Thursday. “And I admit the joke itself went too far.”
PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, was dropped by the company after videos including anti-semitic jokes were uncovered by the Wall Street Journal.
According to the report, Kjellberg posted a video on Jan. 11 featuring footage of two men laughing as they hold up a banner reading “Death to all Jews.” In addition, the paper found nine other instances of anti-semitic jokes on his channel.
However, in his response video, PewDiePie said that the Wall Street Journal and other outlets that covered the reports had taken his jokes out of context. He added that over the years, he’s become less tolerant of the media, which “blatantly misrepresent people for their own personal gain.” He says that he was attacked “by the media to try to discredit me and decrease my influence and economic worth.” He added it was a “personal attack” to portray him as a “Nazi.”
“Old-school media does not like internet personalities because they’re scared of us,” PewDiePie said. “We have so much influence and such a large voice — and I don’t think they understand it.”
Three of Kjellberg’s videos have since been removed, including the one posted on Jan. 11 and another posted on Jan. 22 that showed a man dressed up as Jesus Christ saying, “Hitler did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Kjellberg’s channel currently has more than 53 million subscribers. Last December, he topped Forbes’ list of the highest-paid YouTubers of 2016, having made more than $15 million.
This is not the first time the 27-year-old has come under fire for controversial jokes. He previously threatened to shut down his channel after reaching 50 million subscribers, in what turned out to be a publicity stunt.
“I definitely made mistakes like this before but it’s always been a growing and learning experience for me,” he said in the video. “This whole situation has definitely been that for me and it’s something I’m going to keep in mind moving forward.”
Watch the video above.