An army of children recently congregated in Kerala’s Valanchery, bunking school and travelling several miles to catch a glimpse of Mohamed Nihad aka ‘Thoppi’, an online gamer, rapper, and YouTuber. This kind of public appearance was an occasion of celebration for his followers because Thoppi — famous for his YouTube videos that mostly feature him playing PUBG and making abusive, misogynistic, homophobic remarks — usually never leaves his room out of self-confessed social anxiety. He was at Valanchery for the inauguration of a men’s fashion store, where he sang a song for his fans, featuring the repeated usage of the Malayalam equivalent of ‘fart’. He was then arrested by the Kerala police in Kochi based on two complaints, citing the use of abusive language, circulation of obscene content, and causing traffic hindrance.
Thoppi’s arrest has become a subject of major discourse in Kerala, thoroughly dividing people in their opinions. But what has been more concerning is the kind of fanfare he enjoys among children, many of them as young as ten years old.
In many video clips posted on social media and shared by news portals, Thoppi’s young fans can be seen saying that they love him despite the fact that he uses abusive language. They also say that Thoppi avoids women and hates them, a reason for them to love him even more. Such responses from school-going children, who unabashedly embrace Thoppi’s content and idolise him, have raised questions about the supervision of digital material that kids have access to on the internet.
Thoppi has been active on YouTube since 2020, and his videos garner an average of at least 80,000 to one lakh views. His live streams cross these numbers, sometimes touching several lakhs. As of now, his YouTube channel ‘Mrz. Thoppi’ has 7 lakh 11 thousand (711k) subscribers.
In his live sessions, which are the most popular of his content, he accepts extreme challenges posted as comments by viewers. In a particularly viral video, Thoppi can be seen eating a brand of chips said to be among the spiciest in the world. Reviewing it, he says it is not as hot as hyped, and proceeds to dump the chips inside his boxers at the request of a commenter. He is then seen screaming in pain. Thoppi also showcases rage by breaking his keyboard, once even cracking a YouTube silver play button, and often shouting at his viewers in live streams.
In many of his streams, Thoppi can be seen making lewd facial expressions and sexually explicit remarks about women. The 24-year-old who hails from Mangad in Kannur has many times mentioned how his conservative family has strictly dissuaded him from pursuing gaming and other activities. He also frequently makes Islamophobic comments on his streams.
Many say that videos like those of Thoppi’s are indicative of a larger cyberverse problem. If one were to look for parallels, a Chennai-based YouTuber who went by the name ‘Toxic Madan’ could be an example. Madan, who was also a very popular PUBG player and live streamer, was arrested in 2021 by the Cyber Crime Wing of the Central Crime Branch. Like Thoppi, Madan too used to make intentionally misogynistic remarks about women, and had garnered followers who are primarily of the teenage demographic. Eventually, over 150 complaints were filed against the channel, and Madan and his wife were both booked under different sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Information and Technology Act, and the Representation of Women Act for using filthy language.
Many internet buffs say his content is modelled on that of YouTuber Darren Watkins Jr., who goes by his stage name ‘IShowSpeed’. Darren is also known for his often violent behaviour in his videos, and there seem to be many ‘clones’ of him in the YouTube universe, like Thoppi.
The popularity of extreme videos such as these shines light on the larger context of how the internet becomes an unhealthy coping mechanism for many youngsters, especially children, who then thrive on the validation of their unsupervised, subscriber-led echo chambers, idolising their star content creators. Several social media users have cited how Thoppi is an example of the unchartered YouTube world that has now become a parallel universe of unfettered self-expression, sometimes bordering on violence.
In a viral Facebook post, a school teacher in Kerala wrote that he had observed some of his students, who are Thoppi fans, becoming abusive and rash in their behaviour towards teachers and classmates. He noted that the change is not among an isolated few, but the majority of young boys who apparently followed Thoppi on YouTube. The teacher then watched one of Thoppi’s live streams and mentioned how it contained slut shaming, body shaming, objectifying remarks on women’s bodies, etc. This brings us to the question – what kind of content should children be allowed to access, and who supervises it?
Platforms like YouTube have parental control settings that can be moderated by adults when they give children access to videos. If parents are unable to monitor what goes into their child’s content queue-up, that tells us how non-communicative parenting itself has perhaps become. There is also the problem of awareness here. Though we pride on having broken the digital divide through easy internet access, not every parent has the tools to control what their child watches. Especially since schooling has gone online post Covid-19, most children have an internet-based hand-held device, and many parents are often in the dark about what their child accesses online.
Be that as it may, many are also of the opinion that there was no need for the police to crack down on Thoppi as if he is a hardened criminal. This criticism came up after a video of him being arrested by the police from an apartment in Kochi on June 22 became viral.
In the video, shot by Thoppi himself, the police can be seen knocking at his door and finally breaking it open to arrest him. Mathrubhumi reported that a hard disk, a computer, and two mobile phones were confiscated from him following the arrest. The Kerala police then put out a Facebook post saying that Thoppi’s content is immoral and that it spreads hate.
While his videos have the potential to instil violent and misogynistic thoughts in young children, who form the majority of his fanbase, Thoppi’s choice to vent himself through online gaming and YouTube outbursts are seen by many as a cumulative outcome of his repressed self, warranting medical counselling.
In an interview given to the YouTube channel Milestone Makers, Thoppi says that as long as he is in his room, he can face his audience, no matter how many viewers are watching. But he is unable to interact with people face to face out of anxiety, he says, explaining how his addiction to gaming and need to confine himself to his room has only increased after his friend passed away recently. In the interview, he also speaks about his strained relationship with his parents and how he still does not have a relationship with his father, a man of conservative values.
Following his arrest, many have cited this interview to point out that what Thoppi needs is help, not police brute force and cyber lynching. The young kids who follow him may resonate so deeply with him because they too perhaps experience such repression at home and in schools. The question then should be directed inwards, towards our parenting and schooling philosophy, rather than attacking Thoppi alone and pretending that the problem ends with his arrest. None of this, however, negates the need to call out the homophobic, sexually explicit material that he posts.
While we demand that videos like those of Thoppi be taken down, we must also address Kerala’s general chastising gaze on YouTubers that has become even more apparent through certain discussions surrounding the topic. The Kerala police’s Facebook page said that the money earned by Thoppi is similar to that earned through illegal means, and warned those engaging in such activities of strict legal action. The post reflects a moralistic attitude that our system harbours, and reveals how it plays out into knee-jerk actions against Gen-Z individuals in the name of culture and modesty without looking into the many layers of the problem.
YouTube channels with toxic content have always existed, but there has been no attempt from the police to pull them up for spreading problematic ideas unless a physical show of numbers happens, like in the case of Thoppi. Even here, this would not have perhaps been so much of a problem had the fans not been young children.
After his arrest, conversations are also active about the lack of censorship on the internet including for OTT content and videos on YouTube channels. It is to be noted, while most digital platforms such as YouTube have strict guidelines that prohibit content like this, their algorithms often do not pick up expletives if they are in languages other than English.
Striking a balance between uncensored self-expression and reining in violence in the form of extreme challenges on the internet is a slippery slope for society and law enforcement. Especially considering that the virality of such YouTube content decides how much revenue the creator can make, there is an emerging need to probe deeper into the material created by online influencers who have made major headway into our viewing culture, social milieu, consumption patterns, and advertising models.