YouTuber PewDiePie Apologises After 'Mocking' Deaf Woman

YouTuber PewDiePie has apologised after he was accused of mocking a deaf woman.

The Swede - real name Felix Kjellberg - posted a video entitled 'My Dog Cringes At TikToks', in which he and his pooch Maya reacted to videos on the social media platform.

At one point, he watched a clip from deaf content creator Scarlet May, who was telling a story while using American Sign Language (ASL); however, just a few seconds into watching the video, the 32-year-old pressed pause and refused to continue watching.

"No, I'm not listening to this," he said.

PewDiePie then took aim at May's nails and added that his pup has the 'same crazy nails' as her, before imitating her signing and speech. 

The clip sparked a backlash, and the YouTuber - who has 111 million subscribers - has since removed it from the video and issued an apology, in which he attempted to explain his behaviour.

Commenting on the video, he wrote: "Hey, just to clear a few things up: I edited out the clip with the girl that has the long nails.

"Had no clue she was deaf, but kinda dumb of me to not realise.. Still watching through the clip I only poked fun of her long nails.

"The voice I did for my dog is the same voice I've given her for years. (edit: ..and making my dog's paws move was poking at people always dancing or doing some move on TikTok, which is an ongoing theme in the whole video).

"Anyway honest mistake, my bad."

Following the backlash, May uploaded a video in which she accused PewDiePie of putting the deaf community 'a million steps back'.

She said: “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."

Following PewDiePie's apology, many of his fans leapt to his defence, arguing that the apology wasn't warranted in the first place.

One person wrote: "I watched this video yesterday before it was edited I gotta say it doesn't warrant the reaction. He obviously didn't know and was an honest mistake. And to force an apology is childish."

Another concurred: "The fact you even have to explain. People are so damn sensitive."