Behind Byju's swift silencing of online dissent

Two individuals from two different walks of life have challenged the prowess of edtech giants Byju’s and WhiteHat Jr. But a system of strategic social media takedowns—of posts and people—threatens their right to dissent and criticise

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

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.

AUTHOR

Olina Banerji

Based in Delhi, Olina writes about mega-trends in urban mobility, education, skilling and the environment, with a focus on how institutions and innovations can help cities grow sustainably. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and has worked previously with India Today and global non-profit Ashoka.

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