Dhruv Rathee (Hindi pronunciation:[d̪ʰrʊʋraːʈʰiː]; born 8 October 1994) is an Indian YouTuber, vlogger, and social media activist. He is known for his YouTube videos on social, political, and environmental issues. As of January 2025, he has over 34 million subscribers and 6 billion views across all of his channels.
Rathee is mainly known for his political videos, which mainly contain fact-checking and explanatory content.[7] According to ThePrint, Rathee was one of the first Indian users to use YouTube as a political platform. He began uploading travel videos in 2013, but by the end of the year, he shifted his focus towards political and social topics.[1]
Alongside his serious content, Rathee launched Pee News, a satirical "fake news" segment.[8] Additionally, from 2017 until early 2020, Rathee wrote opinion columns for ThePrint.[9] Dhruv's coverage of the 2018 BJP-AAP scuffle was considered to be one-sided.[10]
In July 2020, Rathee began another YouTube channel called Dhruv Rathee Vlogs, where he shares his international travel vlogs. In addition to his travel vlogs, Rathee hosts various shows, including DW Travel of Deutsche Welle and Decode with Dhruv of Netflix India.[11] He also hosts a podcast on Spotify called Maha Bharat with Dhruv Rathee.[12]
As of February 2022[update], Rathee began a shorts channel to share 30-seconds fact videos. The channel offers a quick and accessible way for viewers to engage with the information Rathee presents.[13] In September 2022, he faced controversy when a video he posted about the political crisis in Pakistan was blocked by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The ministry claimed that the video contained a distorted map of India, in which parts of Kashmir were depicted as part of Pakistan or "disputed".[14] In March 2023, he also faced copyright charges from Dabur on his video titled "The dark-side of cold drinks". In an order, the Calcutta high court ordered social media platforms to remove the video.[15]
Rathee is a resident of Germany. In November 2021, Rathee married his long-time girlfriend Juli Lbr at the Belvedere Palace, in Vienna, Austria.[2] Their first child was born in September 2024.[17][18]
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