Popular YouTuber PewDiePie has reacted to his name being mentioned by the Christchurch mosque shooter in the video which the shooter had reportedly livestreamed on Facebook. As per reports doing the rounds, a gunman killed 49 people and left over 20 others injured during Friday prayers at two New Zealand mosques, in a mass shooting. In the video which is now being circulated widely on social media, the shooter makes a reference to the YouTube sensation PewDiePie and says, "Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie..."
The five second clip from the 17-minutes long video too is going viral on social media platforms, with several netizens blaming PewDiePie for the Christchurch mass shooting, while others are standing by his side to defend him. PewDiePie took to his Twitter account to share his views on being mentioned by the shooter. He wrote, "Just heard the news of the devatating reports from New Zealand Christchurch. I feel absolutely sickened having my name uttered by this person. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims, families and everyone affacted by this tragedy."
PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, is a popular YouTuber having over 89 million subscribers to his channel on the video sharing platform. His videos mainly revolve around comedy, video games and social media culture. He was ranked as one of the highest paid YouTubers in 2018 by Forbes.
Recently, PewDiePie has been embroiled in a controversy with Bhushan Kumar's YouTube channel T-Series. The two channels are in an online battle of sorts to become the most subscribed channel on the video sharing platform. While PewDiePie has 89,439,205 subscribers, T-Series has 89,4333,860 subscribers.
Earlier, PewDiepie had also invited massive backlash from Indian fans, when he had ridiculed some of the popular old Indian daily soaps. Ekta Kapoor had then given him a befitting reply to shut him down too.
For those who're uninitiated, on Friday, a gunman broadcast the live footage of attacking Christchurch mosque in New Zealand in which 49 people were killed and over 20 were injured. A Reuters report states that The video footage widely circulated on social media, apparently taken by a gunman and posted online live as the attack unfolded, showed him driving to one mosque, entering it and shooting randomly at people inside. Worshippers, possibly dead or wounded, lay huddled on the floor, the video showed.
The report further added that the online footage, which appeared to have been captured on a camera strapped to a gunman's head, showed him driving as music played in his vehicle. After parking, he took two guns and walked a short distance to the mosque where he opened fire. Over the course of five minutes, he repeatedly shot worshippers, leaving more than a dozen bodies in one room alone. He returned to the car during that period to change guns, and went back to the mosque to shoot anyone showing signs of life.
