Swedish Youtuber PewDiePie (real name Felix Kjellberg) and Indian music company T-Series have reportedly reached an agreement over a months-long court fight involving Pewds’ videos found to be “abusive” and “racist,” Business Insider reported Tuesday.
As the two YouTube channels competed for the title of world’s number one, in terms of subscriber count, Kjellberg posted two music videos, in which he mocked the Indian language and Indian users. In the lyrics of his songs, Felix recited internet tropes about Indian users, including bad English spelling and calling Hindi “mumble rap,” among other insults, the report says.
In April, the Delhi high court found the videos to be “abusive, vulgar and also racist in nature.” In accordance to the court ruling, the two videos were banned in India.
However, a court filing dating back to 15 July obtained by Business Insider indicates that Kjellberg and his Indian rivals reached a settlement over the videos, although they did not sign an agreement. Little is known about the details of the settlement, as T-Series did not respond to a request for details, the report says. Despite the filing, the two Kjellberg videos remain blocked in India as of Tuesday.
Earlier this year, the two channels engaged in a fierce competition, and T-Series eventually won to become the world’s biggest channel with 108 million subscribers. PewDiePie lags behind with 99 million subscribers.