The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, has issued orders to block eight YouTube based news channels, including seven Indian and one from Pakistan, which had a cumulative viewership of over 114 crore, were subscribed by over 85 lakh users.
All these channels have been blocked in view of spreading fake information and hatred among religious communities across the nation.
As per the Centre, ‘false claims’ were made in various videos of the blocked YouTube channels.
“The YouTube channels were also used to post fake news on various subjects such as the Indian Armed Forces, Jammu and Kashmir, etc,” stated I&B ministry.
The content blocked by the Ministry was found to be “detrimental to sovereignty and integrity of India”, security of the State, India’s friendly relations with foreign States, and public order in the country.
Besides spreading fake news, these blocked YouTube channels were also using fake and sensational thumbnails, images of news anchors and logos of certain TV news channels to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic.
All the YouTube channels blocked by the Ministry were displaying advertisements on their videos having false content detrimental to communal harmony, public order and India’s foreign relations.
With this, since December 2021, the Ministry has issued directions for blocking of 102 YouTube based news channels and several other social media accounts.