PewDiePie wants a nicer Internet, and he’s doing it by taking down one of the most popular and controversial memes from this decade.

“I wanted to talk seriously and honestly for a moment about my thoughts on what’s been going on for the past couple months, and hopefully you can get a better understanding of my perspective,” said Felix Kjellberg, more commonly known as PewDiePie, in the his recent apology video. “I think it’s time to end the ‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ movement.”

In case you have missed the whole movement, PewDiePie, the most subscribed to channel on YouTube with 95 million subscribers, was starting to see its huge subscribe gap closed by an Indian music company named T-Series. However, the meme “Subscribe to PewDiePie,” which once started as a message to spread the word of Felix’s being dethroned as number one, quickly took a turn for the worst.

Two months ago, the shooter responsible for the deaths of at least 49 lives from two mosques in New Zealand, said to his camera during the shootings, “Remember, lads, subscribe to PewDiePie.” This, and the same message etched into a WWII monument twice caused many to dig back into PewDiePie’s past, bringing back videos with what some consider anti-semitic behavior.

But now he wants it to end.

PewDiePie shot a video describing how he just wanted it to be a positive and supportive movement from the beginning, and he never saw the other side coming.
Bedford students have different takes on his apology.

“Everyone makes mistakes,” says Tess Feldman, 7th grader. “He’s just an overall good person. Also, he helps out other YouTubers.”

The occurrences that Tess is referring to are PewDiePie’s frequent donations and shout outs to other content creators. Jacksepticeye, a content creator who was helped greatly by Kjellberg in his early years, worked together with PewDiePie later to raise 3.5 million dollars in just this past year. Another influencer who is good friends with Kjellberg, Markiplier, can be seen doing monthly charity events with Jacksepticeye.

In response to accusations of anti-semitic behavior due to many connecting a war against T-Series to a war against India, PewDiePie held a charity event that raised money for starving kids in India.

However, some at Bedford believe that PewDiePie is lying and just trying to cover his tracks.

“I don’t really trust PewDiePie because in his songs, he insults not only T-series, but also India at the same time,” says Rohan Wadhwani, 7th grader. “I think it’s fake.”

Still, PewDiePie’s battle for making the Internet a better place continues, whether real or fake. His friends continue to hold charity livestreams and donate lots of money to causes. He’s taking on the meme that brought up all the ugly stuff he’s done in the past.