Pewdiepie (the most subscribed to creator on YouTube) caused an uproar on social media after his Twitter verification checkmark was removed (apparently by himself) and later his account was temporarily suspended (by Twitter).
Many media outlets are claiming his suspension was due to a joke he made about joining ISIS. This is almost certainly not the case. In many situations when Twitter suspends an account over a specific tweet, they will make the account delete said tweet.
Twitter declined to comment, but the most obvious reason for his suspension is that Pewdiepie — or someone who accessed his account — changed his avatar to a picture of himself putting something resembling a penis in his mouth. (It’s not clear based on the photo whether it’s a real penis, or a photo of a penis, or just a veiny object meant to look like a penis.)
Penises in profile pictures are understandably against Twitter’s policy, and thus he was temporarily suspended until he changed his picture.
The whole kerfuffle began when Pewdiepie removed his own verification tag. He initially did not tell anyone the reason, and his fanbase was awash in speculation. Then a fake Sky News account tweeted out a fake story saying that Pewdiepie was unverified for joining ISIS.
Popular YouTuber @pewdiepie unverified due to suspected relations with ISIS https://t.co/iElCWtBzpU pic.twitter.com/x2L0INKVU5
— Sky News (@SkyNeiws) August 30, 2016
Pewdiepie then joked on Twitter that he and another YouTuber, JackSepticEye, had indeed joined the terror group. Then at some point for unknown reasons he changed his profile to a (maybe) graphic act of fellatio and got suspended.
So, uh, there you go. Part of the mystery of the mysterious suspension solved.
Follow me on Twitter @William__Hicks.
