Felix Kjellberg, known on YouTube as PewDiePie, said he would delete his popular channel in a 10-minute rant against the video service posted on Friday.
Kjellberg, whose channel draws nearly 50 million subscribers, is known on YouTube for his comedic video game commentary and has the service’s most popular channel. He took issue with many of YouTube’s product and content changes, which he said has caused his videos to perform poorly.
“YouTube is trying to kill my channel,” he said in a video vowing to delete it once he hit the 50 million mark. “It’s clear if you watch my analytics. It’s all going down there.”
Putting on a conspiracy theorist persona, Kjellberg said YouTube was suppressing his videos because he’s white, and suggested the company wants Indian-Canadian Lilly Singh, who also has a popular channel, to lead the brand.
“They want someone else on top,” he said. “Someone really extremely cancerous, like Lilly Singh. I’m white. Can I make that comment? But I do think that’s a problem.”
In a since-deleted tweet, Kjellberg said the comment about his whiteness was sarcastic.
It’s unclear whether Kjellberg will follow through on his threat. On Monday, he tweeted that YouTube had responded to his complaints.
“YouTube has responded and are digging into the issues,” he wrote.
