Authorities in New York City have a message for whoever is defacing a World War II memorial with graffiti in support of YouTuber PewDiePie: Knock it off.
A Reddit user was apparently the first to notice the graffiti and post it online. The image they posted showed the Brooklyn War Memorial covered with "Subscribe to PewDiePie." The message was written three times.
Some context is necessary here. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, is a very popular YouTuber from Sweden. However, he has faced a lot of controversy for using racial slurs on his channel, and has been accused of anti-Semitism.
in 2017, Kjellberg lost a deal with Disney's Maker Studios over videos containing anti-Semitic references and Nazi jokes. In the years since, he has faced more backlash for using the n-word and promoting anti-Semitic channels.
His popularity hasn't really suffered, though. He has more subscribers than any creator on YouTube, with 88 million subscribers. Kjellberg's fans want to keep it that way, and a popular meme is "#SubscribeToPewDiePie."
The memorial pays tribute to the "heroic men and women of the borough of Brooklyn who served in World War II." Inside, it lists the names of around 11,500 people from the borough who died in the war.
After the image circulated online, some people called on Kjellberg to tell his fans to stop it.
Hey @pewdiepie do you think you could tell the fan that is repeatedly defacing the WWII memorial in Brooklyn to stop? Or have you already?
Including some of the fans themselves.
@pewdiepie please address this.. I know this is not the kind of example you expect to set for the world and your subscribers 😓 https://t.co/wxWC5MXfII
The graffiti has since been removed.
"Parks quickly removed the chalk writing from the Brooklyn War Memorial when it was discovered yesterday," a spokesperson for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation told BuzzFeed News.
Kjellberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment.