American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira has found himself at the center of internet fury after his video allegedly portrayed the Gorehabba festival, a cow dung-throwing ritual in a remote Indian village, in a negative light.
At the Gorehabba festival in Karnataka’s Gumatapura, villagers throw dried cow dung at each other as part of a post-Diwali tradition. Oliveira was criticized for ignoring the meaning of the ritual and was labeled a “racist”.
The 25-year-old influencer shared a teaser titled “Inside India’s Poop-Throwing Festival” on X, which quickly garnered more than 5 million views and drew hate from Indian users.
In a now-deleted post, Oliveira shared a photo of himself wearing a hazmat suit and glasses covered in brown stains after the event.
“Happy Diwali! Yes I’ve been to India’s poo throwing festival. It was the most amazing experience of my life. I’ll never go back. Pray I survive,” he wrote, accompanying the post with a poo emoji.
Following the backlash, the YouTuber shared another post with screenshots showing that his video is now censored due to mass reporting from Indian users who claimed it was defiling their country.
“My videos of Indian poo-throwing festivals are already massively reported,” he tweeted.
Tyler Oliveira faces opposition
Tyler Oliveira has over 8 million subscribers on YouTube and has been accused of doing so
“Why do you have to come to India and then make a video of a cow dung festival by walking in the middle of the event and then cry like a loser!” wrote an Indian social media user.
“This may be a one day festival in India but you guys, if you don’t wash your ** with water, you play this festival daily I guess,” another user added.
Several users also claimed that Oliveira was hired to smear India’s reputation.
“He’s not here to investigate, he’s here to slander. It’s hard to believe this isn’t part of a planned smear campaign,” the user said.
“He is known for spreading racism and misinformation,” added another.
Another user said: “You have literally used the name of India without referring to the name of the village. This shows that 1.5 billion people in India are enjoying the cow dung festival. Your tweet is misleading.”
“I hate that your videos make others think this is happening all over India and it’s not. Only in this part of the country,” another user pointed out.
In a separate post, the YouTuber shared an Indian user’s comment saying, “Indians think Pakistanis funded my trip to the poop festival.”
