After months of back and forth, it looks like the highly controversial dispute between two of the most subscribed YouTubers has finally been settled. In case you are unaware of this feud, YouTuber Felix Kjellberg a.k.a. PewDiePie and Indian Production company and record label T-Series were involved in a battle for supremacy which at first seemed funny and harmless but with time, turned ugly… so ugly that it needed the involvement of a lawsuit over the racist diss tracks released by PewDiePie.
Last year, the race to become the most subscribed YouTuber began and this led PewDiePie to release a fun diss track titled “Bitch Lasagna” to defend his throne. The music video included some racist jabs not only at T-Series but at the whole Indian nation in general. It’s safe to say that neither the record label nor a large chunk of the Indian population took kindly to the music video.
Earlier this year as the battle got more serious and the mantle for the most subscribed YouTuber was taken by T-Series, the Swedish YouTuber released another single titled “Congratulations”. Although it seemed like the video was made to congratulate the Indian Music Channel on claiming victory, it was more savage than the previous diss track and accused T-Series of committing fraud.
To nobody’s surprise, both of the diss tracks were banned in India following a court order a few months ago. The ban was implemented after T-Series acquired an injunction from the Delhi High Court. In the injunction, the tracks were labeled as “abusive, vulgar and racist” by the judge of the capital city’s High Court.
In “Congratulations”, PewDiePie even mentioned about receiving a cease and desist letter from the Indian Corporation in regards to the first diss track against them.
However, it looks like the feud is finally over now. PewDiePie, a few months ago, released a video in which he admitted that what seemed a fun battle initially didn’t go as expected and that the feud was hurting people’s sentiments instead so he urged his followers to call off the feud.
Additionally, a new court filing from last month, retrieved by Business Insider, indicates that a settlement has been reached by both T-Series and PewDiePie over the lawsuit. However, an agreement has yet to be signed.
To this day, both diss tracks remain blocked to YouTube users in India. However, the videos are still up in other parts of the World.
Ever since PewDiePie took a step back, T-Series’ YouTube channel has been rapidly growing. It passed the 100 million subscribers mark and the gap between the two top YouTube channels is now far from being ever closed. PewDiePie, as of this moment, has a little over 99 million subscribers and remains as the most subscribed individual creator on the Platform.
Neeraj Kalyan, the President of T-Series, said in an interview that there were no hard feelings from them towards PewDiePie and that they wish him all the best.
YouTube’s new policy around ‘creator-on-creator’ harassment should also be discussed here. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki agreed that Creators taking fun jabs at each other is common on the platform but when these jabs become hurtful and controversial, problems surface. Wojcicki said that they have been working on a new policy to effectively deal with this issue.
However, it has been observed countless times that YouTube’s policies are quite unstable when it comes to dealing with Asian countries. How Indian Rap Artist Badshah’s latest music video broke the record for most views in 24 hours (by leveraging the ad-purchase facility that Google provides) is an example of it. So, it will be interesting to see how effectively the ‘creator-on-creator’ harassment policy is implemented, particularly in developing countries.
Read next: YouTube CEO Talks About Screen Monitoring and Time Management
Last year, the race to become the most subscribed YouTuber began and this led PewDiePie to release a fun diss track titled “Bitch Lasagna” to defend his throne. The music video included some racist jabs not only at T-Series but at the whole Indian nation in general. It’s safe to say that neither the record label nor a large chunk of the Indian population took kindly to the music video.
Earlier this year as the battle got more serious and the mantle for the most subscribed YouTuber was taken by T-Series, the Swedish YouTuber released another single titled “Congratulations”. Although it seemed like the video was made to congratulate the Indian Music Channel on claiming victory, it was more savage than the previous diss track and accused T-Series of committing fraud.
To nobody’s surprise, both of the diss tracks were banned in India following a court order a few months ago. The ban was implemented after T-Series acquired an injunction from the Delhi High Court. In the injunction, the tracks were labeled as “abusive, vulgar and racist” by the judge of the capital city’s High Court.
In “Congratulations”, PewDiePie even mentioned about receiving a cease and desist letter from the Indian Corporation in regards to the first diss track against them.
- Also read: Top 10 most disliked YouTube videos ever
However, it looks like the feud is finally over now. PewDiePie, a few months ago, released a video in which he admitted that what seemed a fun battle initially didn’t go as expected and that the feud was hurting people’s sentiments instead so he urged his followers to call off the feud.
Additionally, a new court filing from last month, retrieved by Business Insider, indicates that a settlement has been reached by both T-Series and PewDiePie over the lawsuit. However, an agreement has yet to be signed.
To this day, both diss tracks remain blocked to YouTube users in India. However, the videos are still up in other parts of the World.
Ever since PewDiePie took a step back, T-Series’ YouTube channel has been rapidly growing. It passed the 100 million subscribers mark and the gap between the two top YouTube channels is now far from being ever closed. PewDiePie, as of this moment, has a little over 99 million subscribers and remains as the most subscribed individual creator on the Platform.
Neeraj Kalyan, the President of T-Series, said in an interview that there were no hard feelings from them towards PewDiePie and that they wish him all the best.
YouTube’s new policy around ‘creator-on-creator’ harassment should also be discussed here. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki agreed that Creators taking fun jabs at each other is common on the platform but when these jabs become hurtful and controversial, problems surface. Wojcicki said that they have been working on a new policy to effectively deal with this issue.
However, it has been observed countless times that YouTube’s policies are quite unstable when it comes to dealing with Asian countries. How Indian Rap Artist Badshah’s latest music video broke the record for most views in 24 hours (by leveraging the ad-purchase facility that Google provides) is an example of it. So, it will be interesting to see how effectively the ‘creator-on-creator’ harassment policy is implemented, particularly in developing countries.
Read next: YouTube CEO Talks About Screen Monitoring and Time Management
