KSI racial slur: YouTuber announces break from social media over comment on Sidemen game show

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Youtube content creator and Internet personality KSI has apologised for using a racial slur in a game show while confirming he will be taking a break from social media.

Popular Internet personality, KSI has issued an apology on early Monday morning (April 3) for using a racial slur on a recent Youtube game show following backlash from his followers. The Youtube content creator has also announced a break from social media, saying he “has been messing up a lot”.

KSI recently appeared on a version of ‘Countdown’ on Sidemen - a popular Youtube channel founded by a group of Internet personalities, including himself, boasting over 18.2 million subscribers - where he had to come up with a word from the letters, O, I, A, K, P, V, Z, U, B - in which he chose to use the word ‘P*ki’.

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He said: “I don’t mean this maliciously, but the word’s ‘P*ki. I’m sorry, we need points, but guys, come on”. His answer, which was bleeped, prompted laughs from fellow personalities on the show with one could be heard saying, “You don’t mean that!”.

The snippet of the video has received over two million views on Twitter, with many people calling him out for uttering the offensive word. Umir, a writer and content creator for the likes of GQ Magazine, expressed his dissatisfaction and disappointment at KSI and the Sidemen team for the incident.

He said: “Been a KSI fan for the longest but so weird for him to say ‘p*ki’ in the latest Sidemen vid even if they bleeped it & it was ‘in jest’ for content. Other racial slurs wouldn’t be used as punchlines for YouTube game shows. Just makes light of the word + certain people’s experience.”

He added: “The fact the Sidemen team didn’t edit it out suggests they were fine with it which is so mad to me. They didn’t think the use of the word for cheap laughs was an issue…That minimises the topic’s significance. Racial abuse toward Asians is taken less seriously, more of the time.”

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This prompted KSI to issue an apology, which he posted on Twitter in the early hours of Monday morning. He said: “I wanna apologise for saying a racial slur in a recent Sidemen video.

“There’s no excuse, no matter the circumstances, I shouldn’t have said it and I’m sorry. I’ve always said to my audience that they shouldn’t worship me or put me on a pedestal because I’m human.

“I’m not perfect, I’m gonna mess up in life, and lately I’ve been messing up a lot. So I’ve decided I’m gonna just take a break from social media for a while.” The offensive video has since been taken down from Youtube.

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