The world's biggest YouTube celebrity just got kicked off Twitter for saying he's joining ISIS
YouTube's number one star, Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg, was suspended from Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.
It appears that the cause was a tweet, which Kjellberg calls a joke, regarding him and another Twitter user joining ISIS. Twitter isn't saying; a representative told Business Insider, "We don't comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons."
His account was re-instated soon after this piece was published.
To understand the "joke," we've gotta step back and explain that - before being suspended from Twitter - the account was first "unverified." You know, that little blue check mark that signifies you're talking to the real deal?
That thing disappeared. That's when Kjellberg - PewDiePie - made this "joke": "Me and @Jack_Septic_Eye have joined isis. Which is why we both got unverified."
Let's step back once again!
Kjellberg has since released a video, titled, "WHY I GOT UNVERIFIED." In it, he says that he got frustrated with the concept of Twitter's verification system and unverified his own account.
Subsequently, a fake Twitter account - @SkyNeiws (which isn't verified), a fake duplicate of the real @SkyNews (which is verified) - took advantage of his de-verification to link him to ISIS.
That tweet did happen - it's right here:
And that's when he made the "joke." It makes more sense now, right? Even if it's still not a great idea to joke about that kind of thing when you have millions of followers who might not understand the bizarre context of such a joke?
When you click the link in the tweet above, it leads to a totally unrelated story on Sky News. The fake Sky News account has just over 400 followers, and no blue verification check mark. And no, as far as we can tell, Kjellberg has not joined ISIS.
Here's the full video: