World's Biggest YouTuber PewDiePie Moves to Japan

PewDiePie, the world's biggest YouTuber, has moved to Japan with his wife and two dogs John Lamparski GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
PewDiePie, the world's biggest YouTuber, has moved to Japan with his wife and two dogs John Lamparski GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
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World's Biggest YouTuber PewDiePie Moves to Japan

PewDiePie, the world's biggest YouTuber, has moved to Japan with his wife and two dogs John Lamparski GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
PewDiePie, the world's biggest YouTuber, has moved to Japan with his wife and two dogs John Lamparski GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

The world's top YouTube star, Swedish gaming streamer PewDiePie, has moved to Japan after the country relaxed its Covid-19 entry rules for some visa-holders.

The 32-year-old has a huge online following, with 111 million subscribers on YouTube, but has faced controversy over offensive jokes in the past, AFP said.

He posted a video this week documenting his arrival with his wife and dogs in Japan, which has some of the strictest virus border controls in the world.

"For so long we doubted whether we could even make this move, and we went through all the ups and downs, and obviously it's been a really long journey," said the streamer, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg.

"But I just really, really appreciate everyone who was supportive of us going... it just feels amazing to be here, finally."

Japan has allowed in foreign business visitors, students and other new residents since March but remains closed to tourists, although the prime minister has pledged a gradual easing of the rules from next month.

Details of who will be allowed to enter and when are yet to be announced, although Japanese media reports say group tours may be first to resume and that the government is discussing scrapping Covid-19 testing on arrival.

Japan welcomed a record 31.9 million foreign visitors in 2019 and had been on track to achieve its goal of 40 million in 2020 before the pandemic hit.

Kjellberg, who previously lived in Britain, said in 2019 he had bought a house in Japan.

The star has landed himself in hot water several times, including over videos containing anti-Semitic remarks and racial slurs, and in 2016 he was temporarily blocked from Twitter after joking he had joined the ISIS group.

Kjellberg also previously said he was "sickened" after hearing that the gunman behind the 2019 New Zealand mosque massacre had promoted his videos before opening fire.



TikTok Calls Report of Possible Sale to Musk's X 'Pure Fiction'

The TikTok logo is displayed outside the offices of the social media app's company offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023. (AFP)
The TikTok logo is displayed outside the offices of the social media app's company offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023. (AFP)
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TikTok Calls Report of Possible Sale to Musk's X 'Pure Fiction'

The TikTok logo is displayed outside the offices of the social media app's company offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023. (AFP)
The TikTok logo is displayed outside the offices of the social media app's company offices in Culver City, California, on March 16, 2023. (AFP)

TikTok on Tuesday labeled as "pure fiction" a report that China is exploring a potential sale of the video-sharing platform's US operations to billionaire Elon Musk as the firm faces an American law requiring imminent Chinese divestment.

Citing anonymous people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Chinese officials were considering selling the company's US operations to Musk's social media platform X.

The report outlined one scenario being discussed in Beijing where X would purchase TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance and combine it with the platform formerly known as Twitter.

"We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction," a TikTok spokesperson told AFP.

The report estimated the value of TikTok's US operations at between $40 billion and $50 billion.

Although Musk is currently ranked as the world's wealthiest person, Bloomberg said it was not clear how Musk could execute the transaction, or if he would need to sell other assets.

The US Congress passed a law last year that requires ByteDance to either sell its wildly popular platform or shut it down. It goes into effect on Sunday -- a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

The US government alleges TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a conduit to spread propaganda. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.

TikTok has challenged the law, taking an appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.

At the hearing, a majority of the conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member bench appeared skeptical of arguments by a lawyer for TikTok that forcing a sale was a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.

Bloomberg characterized Beijing's consideration of a possible Musk transaction as "still preliminary," noting that Chinese officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.

Musk is a close ally of Trump and is expected to play an influential role in Washington in the coming four years.

He also runs electric car company Tesla, which has a major factory in China and counts the country as one of the automaker's biggest markets.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to enact new tariffs on Chinese goods, which would expand a trade war begun in his first term and which was largely upheld, and in some cases supplemented, by outgoing President Joe Biden.