American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira has found himself at the centre of the Internet's fury after his video allegedly depicted the Gorehabba festival, a cow dung-flinging ritual in a remote Indian village, in a negative light.
In the Gorehabba festival of Karnataka's Gumatapura, villagers hurl dried cow dung at each other as part of a post-Diwali tradition. Oliveira was criticised for ignoring the significance behind the ritual and was branded as a "racist".
The 25-year-old influencer shared a teaser clip titled "Inside India's Poop-Throwing Festival" on X, which quickly garnered more than 5 million views and attracted hate from Indian users.
In a now-deleted post, Oliveira shared a picture of himself in a hazmat suit and goggles covered in brown smears following the event.
"Happy Diwali! Yes, I went to India's poop throwing festival. It was the s**tiest experience of my life. I will never go back. Please pray that I survive," he wrote, accompanying the post with a poop emoji.
After the backlash, the YouTuber shared another post with screengrabs showing that his video was under censorship now because of mass reporting from Indian users who claimed he was smearing their country.
"My videos capturing India's poop-throwing festivals are already getting mass reported," he wrote in the tweet.
My videos capturing India's poop-throwing festivals are already getting mass reported