YouTube and TikTok are not counterculture but they are the platforms where counterculture happens.

> a social media "influencer" with millions of followers is not countercultural.

A social media "influencer" could be more important to a younger audience than other mediums, meaning this is the "culture" they will try to counter.

Edit: narrowed it down a little.

" they are the platforms where counterculture happens"

And where exactly can I find them?

Trough the corporate algorithm, that doesn't even let me rewind a video?

Counterculture exists and sone of those expose their lifestyle and projects on these plattforms for fame and money, but that culture surely does not "live" on those plattforms.

> Trough the corporate algorithm, that doesn't even let me rewind a video?

It's worse than that. You used to have to "sell out" to corporate interests before your countercultural cache evaporated. Most YouTube creators "sell out" to advertisers the second they start their channel because getting any revenue on YouTube requires following YouTube's rules. And these rules are getting increasingly draconian with swearing now being sort-of banned. Also forget remixing existing cultural artifacts like older countercultural movements because that's just asking for an automated DMCA strike.

A social media influencer with millions of followers can still be unknown to people outside of that bubble.

My mom has no idea who PewDiePie is.

Are you suggesting that PewDiePie is countercultural?

If you stick with the comparison they were making to cinema this is like saying a movie star is not countercultural and you'd be right. The influencers with millions of followers are not countercultural, they've broken into the mainstream and are busily selling out for money and fame. At the same time you can have countercultural activities happening on those platforms and the "true" revolutionaries will actively eschew money from sponsors and ads and will sabotage any mainstream attempts to make them famous by trolling the normies that jump on the band wagon or by intentionally poisoning their content with things that go far beyond the pale.

I think that by definition, true counterculture isn't going to happen on social media platforms.

Is culture music or is it composed of individual songs and artists? Is culture literature or is it some set of books and authors? Is culture film or is it the movies and directors? Is culture the internet or is it the content and creators?

The hippies weren't tiny and they were the quintessential counter culture. You can have millions of followers and the average cat on the street wouldn't know who you are.