A leading US anti-hate group says it has had no contact with YouTube star PewDiePie since he pledged to donate $50,000 (£40,500) after his videos were criticised for antisemitic content.

PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, announced the donation to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Tuesday in a video released to celebrate having reached 100 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.

He praised the group, which is the US’s foremost antisemitism watchdog, as “an organisation that fights bigotry and prejudice in all its forms.”

But an ADL spokesperson told the JC: “ADL learned about the potential donation from Felix Kjellberg when everyone else did: when he made the announcement on his channel yesterday.

“We have not received any communication from him beyond that.” 

The ADL has previously criticised his videos “containing antisemitic messages” and his “wide dissemination of hate speech.”

In January 2017, Mr Kjellberg published a video in which he showed things people were willing to do if they were paid $5, as part of a review of Fiverr, an Israeli company. In the video, he paid two men to hold up a sign reading “Death to all Jews”, also videoing his reaction. He later said he had made the video as a joke.

The following month, companies which had business deals with the YouTube star – including Disney, Google and YouTube itself – cut ties with him.

In response to the news that Disney had cancelled its affiliation, ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt thanked the company, saying the antisemitism-monitoring organisation “commends Disney’s decision…following his [Mr Kjellberg’s] posting of videos on YouTube containing swastikas and other antisemitic messages, including an image of two men holding a sign saying ‘death to all Jews’.

“PewDiePie is entitled to his own brand of humour”, Mr Greenblatt’s statement continued, “but neither Disney nor any other company has any obligation to support his wide dissemination of hate speech.”

As late as last December, Mr Kjellberg was criticised after recommending other YouTube channels he enjoyed watching and including one called E;R, which has regularly used antisemitic and racist language.