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The co-founder of YouTube channel Kinda Funny has quit the group after being drawn into a row about a sexist tweet.
Colin Moriarty left IGN to form Kinda Funny in 2014. However, after tweeting about enjoying the peace and quiet on International Women’s Day, he has faced severe criticism both from current and former colleagues and the wider internet community.
After it was confirmed that he would not be appearing at PAX East as planned, Moriarty eventually announced his resignation.
It’s with a heavy heart and great sadness that I announce my resignation from Kinda Funny, effective immediately,” he said. This morning, the guys and I had a constructive conversation, and feel that, with our separate visions for the future and for the direction of the company, it’s time to go our separate ways. I want to be clear that this was my decision.
Just as we collaborated as friends, so too do we part. I hope you continue to support them. I simply want to reconnect with what’s most important to me. Politics, history, philosophy. Reading books. Talking about things I feel are most impactful and essential for a person like me.
Opportunities are already popping up for me, bringing me in a new, different, and exciting direction, a direction that I feel makes perfect sense for me. Obviously, you haven’t seen or heard the last of me. Far from it. I hope that when I return with what’s next, you will support me there, just as you’ve supported me over these many years.”
Former partner Greg Miller confirmed separately during a Twitch stream that Moriarty and the rest of the team have been moving in two directions for a long time”. He also claimed that the tweet was not the only reason for the split.
Hot on the heels of that particular scandal, fellow YouTube Jon Jafari, who operates under the name JonTron, has found himself the centre of attentions after a string of racist tweets that backed the white supremacy movement.
His tirade carried over to his stream, where he expressed his concern about immigration contributing to the dilution of the gene pool.
Adding to the pain, YouTuber Boogie2988 has also now gone on record to argue that people should be more tolerant of the sort of views that Jafari is expressing, and even went as far as to accuse the media of targeting him due to the rivalry between the written press and video makers.
All of this, of course, comes after the high-profile PewDiePie controversy, when YouTube’s biggest star thought it funny to start including anti-sematic material in his videos.
The lesson? Don’t leave your kids alone with YouTube. 2017 has brought with it the normalisation of all sorts of views that you really don’t want them to start absorbing.
