The YouTube Shorts colonization movement is a trend aiming to bring brain rot content to YouTube before the TikTok ban is set to resume. The planned invasion will take place on March 25, 2025—11 days before the end of the 75-day extension period on the ban granted by President Donald Trump in January.
Little news has come out on whether the government will reach a deal with ByteDance to prevent the ban from continuing other than vague assurances from the administration. In anticipation of the loss of their accounts, TikTok users have set their sights on YouTube.
What is the YouTube Shorts colonization?
The “colonization” is to be a mass online event in which TikTok users will work to make YouTube Shorts more like their preferred app by uploading a ton of videos, especially brain rot. Brain rot—or brainrot—is a Gen Z slang term that means “chronically online,” and brainrot memes are so nonsensical they’re capable of “brain rotting.”
With enough participation, they hope to push out “dead memes” and other content favored by the older audiences of YouTube, driving those users away and altering the site’s algorithm.
They also hope to put a stop to the trend of “dead internet theory” comments. This conspiracy theory posits that the internet, especially social media, is bots more than anything else. Proponents believe that companies have flooded sites with bots to manipulate algorithms and artificially boost favored content. These individuals may leave accusatory comments on certain posts they believe are bot-boosted.
TikTokers hope to make YouTube Shorts more friendly to their kind before the extension ends on April 5, 2025, in case a deal cannot be reached and TikTok is gone from the U.S. for good.
Where did the YouTube Shorts colonization movement come from?
The YouTube Shorts colonization movement appears to have originated with user @privden2, who posted a TikTok video with his idea on March 13, 2025. Lying on his bed, he lays out his plan to take over YouTube with brain rot content.
“The first order of business is making YouTube Shorts silly again,” he says. “We just need to absolutely flood YouTube Shorts with current brain rot, and then eventually, everyone will catch on.”
@privden2 #fyp #youtubeshorts #foryou #xyzbca ♬ Dust Collector – ybg lucas
“The second order of business is getting rid of those dead internet theory comments … We need to eviscerate those comments. If we can actually do those two things, then we will successfully colonize YouTube Shorts.”
This video gained over 724,000 views and 111,000 likes. He followed this up with a propaganda video on March 14 in front of the U.K. flag. As he marches and salutes, the captions announce the official date of the colonization campaign and tell people to subscribe to his YouTube account.
“WE YES WE will be posting brain rot and eliminating all dead internet theory comments,” it says.
On the same day, user @leepicdude96 gained 1.8 million views with a similar video in front of the John Vanderlyn painting “Landing of Columbus.”
YouTube Shorts colonization takes off
As word of the plan spread, others began to make videos with clips from films, video games, and sports moments showing how they and YouTube Shorts users will feel during the colonization process. The posts demonstrating expected reactions from YouTube users poke fun at them for being chronically behind the times.
One video by the TikTok account for the Brooklyn Nets shows one of their players grimacing with his hands on his head. The caption reads, “YouTube shorts users in 5 months realizing there was a YouTube shorts colonization.”
@brooklynnets #youtubeshorts #meme #colonization ♬ original sound – @ow.enb on ig
Another by @luzzi.paoluzzi uses gameplay footage from a warfare video game in which a player mows down enemies in the trenches. This one says, “How the great Ytshorts colonization will feel like.”
Other accounts dedicated to the movement have appeared, many displaying a flag with the TikTok logo in the center and red, white, and cyan stripes in a cross pattern on a dark blue background. On March 16, one user created the @officialtiktokmilitary and began posting propaganda videos.
Their most popular entry, posted on March 17, directs colonizers to post on YouTube Shorts with the “official TikTok military flag” and leave comments “letting them know the TikTok empire has arrived.” Lastly, they should dislike “cringe” YouTube shorts videos and suspected bot comments.
Will the TikTok ban resume on April 5?
As the end of the extension on the TikTok ban grace period looms, the question of whether the Trump administration has reached a deal to keep the app running in the U.S. keeps coming up. On March 9, Trump assured reporters on Air Force One that his government is “dealing with four different groups” who may want to buy the app and that “all four are good.” He did not provide any details.
On March 14, Vice President JD Vance had a little bit more information but still did not reveal specifics about who would be buying.
“There will almost certainly be a high-level agreement that I think satisfies our national security concerns, allows there to be a distinct American TikTok enterprise,” he told NBC News.
He expressed hope that they could finalize the deal without needing to extend the deadline further, but that the amount of paperwork involved could get in the way.
“We’re trying to close this thing by early April. I think that the outlines of this thing will be very clear. The question is whether we can get all the paper done.”
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