Stupid Battle Over YouTube Subcribers Now Includes A Takedown Order From A Court In India

from the courting-subscribers dept

One of the stupidest fights over internet points has reached its latest nadir. It's nadirs all the way down, tbh. If you're interested, there's an entire Wikipedia page with a blow-by-blow of YouTuber PewDiePie's fight against Indian content conglomerate, T-Series. It starts with subscriber counts and ends with a court order. In between, there's racism, hacked printers, billboard purchases, invective of all varieties, and this salvo from the controversial PewDiePie: a "diss track" called "Bitch Lasagna."

If you're inclined to click through and assail yourself with "Bitch Lasagna," you'll be greeted with some of the worst white boy rapping since white boys started rapping. Robert Van Winkle is rolling over in his grave. [Note: My apologies to all of us: I've been informed Mr. Van Winkle is, unfortunately, still alive.] Contained in this video are some slurs against the country of India and its inhabitants -- not all that unexpected for a diss track.

What's a little more unexpected is how far T-Series will go to up its subscriber count and fan the flames of this meaningless -- but lucrative -- battle over numbers in a little red box. There's now a court involved.

Delhi HC has ordered the removal of PewDiePie’s diss tracks against T-Series namely ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Bitch lasagna’, Bar and Bench reports. YouTube has also been ordered to see that these videos are not uploaded on the platform again. If you search for either of the videos on YouTube, you will see that they are not available in India.

[...]

The High Court was of the opinion that the songs have “repeated comments made which are abusive, vulgar and also racist in nature,” according to the report. The matter is currently pending in the Delhi High Court and the next hearing will take place on July 15.

The court isn't wrong. The video contains all of those elements. But this isn't really about someone offending a country with over 1 billion residents. It's about who has the higher subscriber count. By geofencing PewDiePie out of India, T-Series can hope to grab the lead for good. This is a race to the bottom and T-Series has taken the lead by using the power of the government to nuke a competitor's video.

But I'm sure -- given enough time -- PewDiePie or his supporters will find a way to "top" this. Taking control of unsecured devices and vandalizing war memorials is just part of the stupid, stupid game being played here.

Filed Under: courts, diss tracks, india, pewdiepie, subscribers, vulgar language
Companies: t-series, youtube