Rohit Raj Gupta is a tech content creator from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand who reviews smartwatches, fitness trackers, and other tech gadgets. With over 200K subscribers, his YouTube channel’s About section tells that he offers honest reviews and exposes scams in the world of wearables and smartphones.
Recently, Gupta got into trouble when he uploaded a review video of the Layers Anarc smartwatch, a product launched by the famous YouTuber Shlok Srivastava who is known as Tech Burner.
The 17-minute video by Rohit Raj Gupta alleged some serious questions about the sensors of the smartwatch and its app being a copy of some other Chinese app. He tried to show the pros and cons of the Anarc Watch referring to Tech Burner’s launch videos and personally using the watch and sharing his experience.
With the word ‘scam’ mentioned in the title and thumbnail of the video, it garnered millions of views in a very short period and eventually got deleted due to a legal dispute.
Currently, it’s not available on the official channel of Rohit Raj Gupta but many people had already downloaded the video and it has now been reuploaded on many other channels.
Legal notice by Tech Burner
Recently, Arun Prabhudesai from Trakin Tech invited some of the top tech YouTubers in India for a roundtable — India’s Biggest Tech Roundtable 2024 (IBTR2024)— including Tech Burner where he revealed some details about this case.
When asked by Manoj Saru from Technology Gyan (at timestamp 1:33:10) about the takedown of Rohit Raj Gupta’s video, Shlok replied that he had sent a legal notice asking him to prove what he had said in his video in court due to which he deleted the video himself.
“I have to draw a line where criticism ends and from where defamation and lies start. If anyone crosses that line, I’ll fight for that,” he added.
Tech Burner also said (at around timestamp 1:18:00) the reasons why it hit him so hard referring to the negativity around the Anarc Watch being called a white-label product from China, and a scam.
When asked by Tech Bar whether the watch is built from scratch as some of the controversy is around the same, Shlok replied that the firmware and the UI of the app are built from scratch and not the entire product.
In the IBTR2024 video, Tecch Burner can be seen telling multiple times that the Layers Anarch smartwatch is designed in London and manufactured in China. He also mentioned that the base framework of the app has been sourced from the manufacturer.
Reaction of Rohit Raj Gupta on deleted video
Just a few days after the video was deleted, Rohit Raj Gupta uploaded an update video on his channel where he confirmed that the video was unavailable due to a legal dispute. It seems that he made the video private.
He said, “The video was removed not by me directly, but as a result of legal dispute. To be frank, I don’t want to get indulged in any controversy.“
Gupta said that he is a student and he started making videos to review tech products and share his experience with people. He doesn’t want to get involved in any controversy and urged his viewers also not to stretch this more and let move on from this case.
Referring to his deleted video, he said that he showed with reference what he experienced about the smartwatch. Gupta also said that only he knows what’s happening in his life and he couldn’t even share everything on the Internet.
YouTube Journey
Rohit Raj Gupta started making videos on YouTube back in 2016 when he was in his 2nd year of diploma. He has done Polytechnic and B.Tech. in Civil Engineering, and he used to make videos as a side gig after college.
The first video he recorded was from his tablet in his hostel and it got some views and a good response from the viewers. He continued making more videos and after 1 year, his channel had around 3-4K subscribers.
At the same time, he also completed the $100 threshold of AdSense and got his first payment from YouTube. He kept making videos and completed 50K subscribers in 2020 and eventually 100K subscribers in December 2021.
Most of his videos are reviews of smartwatches and fitness bands, and people trust his opinions as he has been using these products for a long time. He has reviewed hundreds of wearables and the video on Layers Anarch smartwatch was just another review, but it got him in serious trouble.
