Erin, now 16, had been watching PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, for years by then. She understood that when PewDiePie paid two strangers through a freelancing service called Fiverr to hold up a sign that read "Death to All Jews," the stunt was intended as extreme humor meant to criticize Fiverr — even if she thought it crossed a line. But this wasn't just some random online stranger. This is a person she felt she knew.

When, as a result of the Journal's reporting, Kjellberg lost lucrative deals with YouTube, Kjellberg and his fans increasingly said that the media was conspiring to take him down by smearing him as a racist, that the reporting on him was out of context, driven by a rival industry's fear of jealousy.

Erin doesn't always like how the media writes about YouTube celebrities. But when Kjellberg said the n-word, in anger, while live-streaming himself playing a video game a few months later, Erin's opinion of him changed.