YouTube vs TikTok: All About Indian Internet’s Biggest Commercial Feud!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the huge ‘YouTube vs TikTok’ fiasco. It basically took over the Indian internet for weeks with countless articles and videos and had some major repercussions. Everyone offered either their own opinions on it or merely informed people about the incident and created a lot of revenue for YouTube as well as its creators. Let’s sum it up in 3 parts. 

1. The Action

On 18th April 2020, YouTuber Elvish Yadav uploaded a video ‘roasting’ TikTokers on his YouTube channel. Many viewers considered this to be quite an entertaining video. It was nothing new since hundreds of similar videos already existed on the platform. But TikToker Amir Siddiqui made a response video on Instagram to Elvish and other YouTubers. He asked them not to body shame TikTokers and compared the two platforms. He tagged famous YouTubers on his post and made points trying to prove that TikTok is better than YouTube. It triggered a massive chain of roast/reaction videos from almost every major Indian YouTuber, who all negatively criticized the video. India’s top creator Carryminati’s video on the same topic broke many records and his audience loved it. That was the peak of this widely proclaimed YouTube vs TikTok ‘war’

2. The Reaction

After large scale criticism of Carryminati’s video for including homophobic slurs, YouTube deleted it on accounts of violating their online harassment and bullying policies. YouTube also took down other creators’ videos related to the topic, although some of them have been restored at the time of writing. Carryminati’s fans slammed this move on a large scale. He confirmed later that the video would not be returning to YouTube. Many TikTokers and YouTubers ‘replied’ and reacted to each other’s videos on the same topic. It was a trend to make a video on the topic since you got a LOT of easy views. TikTok star ‘Revolver Rani’ was also involved as she had made a video criticizing YouTubers too. She faced a lot of hate as well, but not as much as Amir.

3. The Outcome

YouTube’s removal of Carryminati’s video sent out a strong message to other YouTubers. It showed the intolerance that they had for homophobia and harassment on their platform, regardless of context. It automatically served as a warning to other YouTubers who were making hateful videos in the name of “roasting”.  Even though people argued that this was a violation of ‘Freedom of Speech’, YouTube has made it clear that for someone to be successful on their platform, they would have to play by their rules. 

Carryminati meanwhile released a rap song ‘Yalgaar’, which in Hindi means ‘Attack’. He essentially slammed YouTube for taking down his video. He also openly expressed his thoughts about the whole matter, calling out the people who opposed him. This song and its video were very well received by his subscribers. And as usual, there was a lot of criticism too, with people calling out his ‘problematic’ mentality based on his lyrics. You can listen to it here.

In the end though, both the platforms had become cesspools of hate during the period, proving that maybe they aren’t that different after all. What do you think of this Internet phenomenon? Do you think any good came out of it? Let’s discuss in the comments below!