Since October, YouTube news has been dominated by the competition between independent YouTuber Pewdiepie and the Indian music corporation T-Series to be the most subscribed to channel on the platform. For months, the race has remained close, with only 20,000 subscribers currently separating the two channels. T-Series rise has been enabled by an Indian viewer base that is increasingly connected to the internet. However, Pewdiepie and fans are not leaving without a fight. Under the banner of the “Subscribe to Pewdiepie” meme, they have used every possible medium to support their favorite creator.
Recently, T-Series issued its own plea to its subscriber base. In a Twitter video T-Series' chairman and managing director, Bhushan Kumar, encouraged people to subscribe to the channel because becoming the most subscribed to YouTube channel would be a historic moment for India, stating, “Today belongs to you. It belongs to the entire nation.” Pewdiepie fans criticized Kumar for using nationalist rhetoric to boost his subscribers, while at the same time stating that the race is between independent creators and corporations on the platform. The battle for YouTube has devolved into the paradigms of “Creators vs. Corporations” and “India vs. the World.” Although these paradigms reflect real problems, blindly supporting Pewdiepie for independent content or T-Series for India doesn’t address the problems but boosts two problematic YouTube channels.
In addition to having the most subscribed to YouTube channel since 2013, Felix Kjellberg is also one of the most controversial YouTubers on the platform. He has moved from scandal to scandal. He has been followed by anti-semitic accusations since 2017 due to his anti-semitic jokes. He recommended a channel notable for its white supremacist rhetoric. He called a Battlegrounds opponent a “fu**ing n-word” during a livestream, and his behavior towards female streamers on Twitch and YouTuber Lilly Singh has led to allegations of sexism. Kjellberg has apologized for some of these scandals, after criticism, and has used his platform to advance some philanthropic causes. He has responded to accusations of being anti-India by fundraising for CRY India. Yet, Pewdiepie’s media attention over the past few years has not been for Kjellberg’s independent content but his irresponsibility as a creator to realize the influence of his platform.
Pewdiepie fans have taken extreme actions that reflect poorly on the YouTube channel, and Kjellberg has not made any effort to curtail this behavior. In order to help Pewdiepie remain the number one channel, Pewdiepie fans have hacked printers, chromecasts, Google Homes, and the Wall Street Journal. Most recently, a World War II memorial was vandalized with “Subscribe to Pewdiepie” graffiti. The creator hasn’t made many efforts to temper the extremes of his fan base. In a video responding to a report that one of his fans hacked over 50,000 printers, the creator called the act “a good meme for a funny cause.” Although Kjellberg remains one of the best known independent creators, his irresponsible behavior as an influencer isn’t what we should be supporting as the face of independent creators on YouTube in the “Creator vs. Corporation” battle that Pewdiepie has used to boost subscribers.
Kumar’s “India vs. the World” narrative is also flawed. His Twitter video is a reversal of the way that T-Series and Kumar himself had previously approached the channel’s growing popularity. In a BBC article, Kumar stated “I am really not bothered about this race. I don’t even know why PewDiePie is taking this so seriously. He’s getting his people to push him, to promote him. We are not competing with him.” Kumar now appears to have changed his tact, promoting the success of T-Series as a win for India.
Kumar’s video painting the rise of T-Series as a historic moment for India comes amid rising nationalism in the country after a February suicide bombing that killed 40 in Kashmir and a military confrontation between Pakistani and Indian forces. In a video by Asian Boss about how Indians felt about Pewdiepie vs. T-Series, interviewees tied their support to T-Series to their support to India, with one woman stating that Indians should subscribe to T-Series not just for the Hindi music but also because “T-Series has done a lot for the country.” It’s not clear what T-Series has done for India other than removing all Pakistani songs from their YouTube channel. At its core, T-Series is another corporation with no moral difference from the many other corporations taking over YouTube. As one young boy said to the Asian Boss team, “The concept of nationality has nothing to do with YouTube.” By injecting nationalist rhetoric to the Pewdiepie vs. T-Series battle, Kumar threatens the idea of YouTube as a global community in order to boost his channel’s subscriber count.
If you’re worried about the gradual corporate takeover of YouTube or excited by the increasing diversity of YouTube creators and content, you shouldn’t follow the Pewdiepie vs. T-Series spectacle. Both channels have been irresponsible, prioritizing the attention growth of their channels instead of helping to create a wholesome YouTube community. Instead, support the creators that make content you like by subscribing and donating. This Battle for YouTube has been taken over by a dogmatism that is a disservice to the platform and community. It's time to unsubscribe.
