YouTuber Backs Down After Backlash Over His Cow Dung Festival Video

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira has announced that he will not release his planned documentary on Karnataka’s Gorehabba festival, a rural ritual marking the end of Diwali, after facing intense online backlash and threats from thousands of Indians.

Oliveira’s initial video, shot in Gumatapura village and uploaded to YouTube under the title “I Survived India’s Poop-Throwing Festival,” quickly went viral, amassing over 5 million views. In the footage, he appears in a hazmat suit and goggles as villagers toss cow dung at each other — a centuries-old local tradition believed to bring prosperity and cleanse the spirit after Diwali.

While Oliveira described the festival as “unusual” and said he meant only to share “a unique cultural event with the world,” many viewers accused him of mocking Indian customs and portraying the ritual in a negative, even racist, light. Critics said the video stripped the practice of its cultural meaning, reducing it to spectacle for Western audiences.

The controversy spiraled as social media users denounced Oliveira’s tone and presentation, prompting the YouTuber to defend himself. “It isn’t racist to film a poop-throwing festival,” he initially wrote, rejecting the accusations. But in a later statement posted to X, Oliveira said the backlash had gone far beyond criticism.

“I have been doxxed and threatened by thousands of Indians over the last two weeks,” he wrote. “My family has been attacked in ways I could never imagine. Showing up to that festival was the worst decision of my life.”

Oliveira added, “I cannot defeat the combined power of 1.5 billion Indians who yearn for my destruction. I must choose my battles, and this one isn’t worth it.”

Oliveira, whose X bio reads “Man with a camera asking people questions with a small microphone,” has built a large following for his offbeat travel and social commentary videos.