Curbing an artist's freedom is something that's become very familiar in the Indian context. We're so used to seeing videos being taken down and artists facing flak from platforms which claim to promote content and art without discrimination. While sometimes there may be a reason for outrage or a curb, in other cases such a move just appears like an overreaction or a move to put a lock on freedom of expression.
CarryMinati has recently been subjected to the same treatment many artists face as YouTube took down a video, which happened to be his most popular yet. Simply because the YouTuber roasted another artist on TikTok. India's history, rather's YouTube's history with roasts has not been a good one, so this comes as not so much of a surprise.
CarryMinati pens emotional statement on YouTube's row
Censorship isn't new in India, but when a Youtuber as popular as CarryMinati is subject to it, the community becomes the shield. After 20-year-old Ajey Nagar the man behind CarryMinati posted his YouTube versus TikTok video, he saw virality like he hadn't before. For an Indian content creator, the video was a huge feat. In the video, though CarryMinati took on TikTok artist Amir Siddiqui.
The roast format of comedy is not designed for the Indian palette. But, CarryMinati has often roasted people in his videos, from Bollywood actors to TV celebrities and even a global brand like Pewdiepie. None of those videos evoked action on part of YouTube. The streaming platform has often come under fire for their discriminatory action taken against certain videos with enough reason or oversight. The platform took down the video claiming that it went against their terms and conditions.
The action sparked outrage like wildfire, and CarryMinati became the most spoken about personality, in a matter of hours. #Justiceforcarry began trending on Twitter as the public and many actors and public personalities came forward to stand by him.
Now, after much has happened, Ajey Nagar posted an emotional statement on the matter, which has garnered love from all quarters. In his honest take he reveals, "This video had already broken several records and we were just a day away from saying that the most liked and the most popular non-music video on YouTube globally belongs to an Indian creator..." This comes as a huge chanced missed for the whole Indian YouTube community, for whom this would have been a massive feat and motivation.
Well, Carry still has his supporters, fellow YouTubers like Ashish Chanchlani commented asking him not to lose hope. We can only hope his next is bigger than this one and finally, we can break the glass ceiling.
