YouTuber PewDiePie was long recognized as the most-subscribed YouTube channel in history. Times are changing, however, with the arrival of a new competitor: T-Series. It is a channel devoted to an Indian company of the same name that became famous through music made for Bollywood films, soundtracks, and Indi-pop. Since 2017, T-Series has been the world's most-viewed YouTube channel, with 67 billion views (yes, with a "b"). PewDiePie, meanwhile, had been the most-subscribed channel since 2013.
In 2019, T-Series temporarily edged ahead of Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) in subscriber count, prompting a battle over the platform's most-subscribed channel, with both sides having supporters and detractors.
When the Indian channel had apparently overtaken the Swedish YouTuber, Felix published a sarcastic video called "Congratulations", in which the music channel was congratulated on becoming the site's most subscribed while also being mocked or criticized. The video pointed out that the corporation began its service by pirating music and has a reputation for tax evasion.
Now you're at number one, hope you did nothing wrong / Like starting your business by selling pirated songsGet used to having the media hold your past against you (Uh oh) / I'm sure there is nothing you're doing that is illegal, right.
T-Series remained publicly silent about the accusations.
T-Series Takes Legal Action
In response, the channel took legal action. The Delhi High Court ordered Felix Kjellberg to "remove and disable access" to two viral songs criticizing the company—"Bitch Lasagna" and the YouTuber's more recent hit, "Congratulations."
T-Series first filed a complaint saying that Kjellberg's songs were "defamatory, disparaging, insulting, and offensive." The corporation also said the songs contained "repeated comments... abusive, vulgar, and also racist in nature."
PewDiePie then spoke out in defense of the songs he had made, saying that they were intended as jokes and also claiming that “Many of those points are lies as well.”
The court said YouTube had two weeks to comply with the requests.
PewDiePie Song Is Accused of Plagiarism
After "Congratulations" was released, people noticed that YouTube videos containing the Swedish YouTuber's song were being removed because of copyright claims from a company called TuneCore. When asked about the situation, PewDiePie's editor had the following to say:
Team YouTube—some company called TuneCore is claiming copyright over the use of PewDiePie's song Congratulations.How are they getting away with this? Fix it as soon as possible.
One possible reason for the situation was that the instrumental for Congratulations had been stolen from Buckwild, created by Pontus Petterson. After a period of silence from PewDiePie, TuneCore issued a clear statement about the copyright infringement claims:
We are aware of the recent incident involving a user claiming copyright over a PewDiePie song to which he or she did not own the rights. We took action against the customer who distributed the song and deactivated the account. Our team will monitor the situation to ensure this does not happen again.
At present, the battle between the world's largest channels continues, with PewDiePie currently in the lead. The Brazilian scene also has several channels with multiple subscribers.
