- The Byju’s-WhiteHat Jr duo have weaponised opaque yet stringent copyright infringement rules on social media to their own benefit
- One of Pradeep Poonia's YouTube videos criticising WhiteHat Jr was taken down; Aniruddha Malpani was booted out of LinkedIn
- Poonia, Malpani claim Byju's is targeting their critical posts through third-party anti-piracy firms, taking down posts they deem unviable
- Platform rules have made entities judge and jury, despite claims of neutrality; legal complaints, a shift to other channels seem to be only recourse
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On 11 September 2020, 29-year-old Pradeep Poonia uploaded a video to YouTube under a rather strange account name, Whitehat Sr. Strange, because it closely resembled the name of WhiteHat Jr*, a popular edtech company based out of the western Indian city of Mumbai. Its aim is to teach young children how to code, promising six-figure salaries and a Silicon Valley future to its students.
At the time, Poonia says, he didn’t realise how his simple play on WhiteHat Jr’s name would land him in social media purgatory.
The video, titled “The difference between Byju’s and WhiteHat Jr” is a dramatic and comic expression of Poonia’s view of these multi-billion dollar businesses. It is over-the-top and involves two balloons, a pin prick, and a tacky sound effect. DIY dissent at its simplest.
A snapshot from Poonia's first YouTube video about Byju's (Picture credit: The Ken/Olina Banerji)
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What it doesn’t display is any logo, trademark or material that Byju’s or WhiteHat Jr might have proprietary rights on. So imagine Poonia’s surprise when, two days later, YouTube took down his video citing a “copyright infringement”.
YouTube took down the video on claims of copyright infringement ( Picture credit: Pradeep Poonia)
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Credits
Written by Olina Banerji
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