YouTube have removed Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg’s diss track on the Cocomelon channel for violating platform guidelines around cyberbullying and child safety.
In his decade on YouTube, PewDiePie has gotten into some interesting beefs with other channels, with the outcome usually being him settling the drama with a pretty funny joke, a video, or more recently, a diss track.
PewDiePie viewers ate up his lyrics on ‘B**ch Lasagna’ when he was embroiled in a battle with T-Series to be the most subscribed channel, and on February 14, the YouTuber dropped another diss track.
This time though, it was aimed at children’s channel Cocomelon – though he did call out rapper 6ix9ine in there too. However, if fans want to listen to it now, it’s been taken down by YouTube.
In the early hours of February 19, fans of the Swede noted that the song had disappeared from his channel and quizzed YouTube’s support on why this was the case.
The reason they gave on Twitter was that it violated two policies, child safety, and harassment. “This video violated two policies: 1) Child safety: by looking like it was made for kids but containing inappropriate content. 2) Harassment: by inciting harassment @ other creators– we allow criticism but this crossed the line,” TeamYouTube tweeted, highlighting the policies in question.
“Any reuploads of the original, including full length or partial reuploads, clips, etc will be removed too. Still images are ok.”
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(2/2) Any reuploads of the original, including full length or partial reuploads, clips, etc will be removed too. Still images are ok. Also dropping the policy links below for reference:
Child Safety: https://t.co/yHHlYizdu5 Harassment: https://t.co/n10mouwzhz
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) February 19, 2021
Some fans accused the platform of double standards in the replies, noting that there is plenty of adult content on YouTube that violates similar guidelines but is not taken down.=
Others noted that the video platform also makes exceptions on diss tracks for breaking certain policies too. Though, they do explain that saying “I was joking” after harassing someone through a diss track isn’t a get out of jail free card.
What about the exceptions that specifically mention Diss Tracks? pic.twitter.com/Bm9ICMJP6n
— Connor Dale (@CDProd95) February 19, 2021
As of writing, PewDiePie hasn’t responded to his song being taken down but he likely will do at some point, seeing as he hasn’t been shy when it comes to criticizing YouTube.