Deaf TikToker Scarlet May is hitting back at PewDiePie’s apology after he mocked her in a ‘cringe compilation’ video — and also slamming accusations of using the drama to “get followers.”
Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg continues to be at the center of controversy after mocking a deaf woman in a TikTok ‘cringe compilation’ video on July 26.
In his video, he seemed to make fun of the woman’s hand movements and used his pet pug, Maya, to recreate her sign language.
The internet quickly lashed out at Kjellberg, who apologized for the incident and called it an “honest mistake,” claiming that he “had no clue she was deaf.”
However, Scarlet May — the deaf woman he poked fun at and a disability advocate with over 6 million TikTok followers — isn’t exactly impressed with his apology. She responded to his statement in a follow-up video on July 28, where she said she didn’t buy his explanation of events.
“If he was just talking about the nails and the sound of it, he should have just done this with his hands or his dog’s hands,” she argued, rubbing her nails together. “But he was moving his dog’s hands and arms all over the place. That was sign language.
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“Also, for everyone defending him saying, ‘No, he was just talking about the nails’ when moving his dog’s arms around, he literally said in his apology comment that he thought I was ‘dancing.'”
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Scarlet May went on to hit back at claims of using the current situation to cancel PewDiePie, reiterating that she’d initially given him the benefit of the doubt
“Nobody said that. I never once said that. If anything, I said everyone makes mistakes. It’s okay to just own up to them.”
May says this is the last time she’ll be addressing the situation, which has sparked responses all over the net as the matter continues to prompt conversation regarding accessibility and normalizing sign language.
