The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting blocked 16 YouTube news channels including 10 Indian and 6 Pakistan-based channels for spreading disinformation related to India’s national security, foreign relations, and public order.

According to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, YouTube channels were spreading false, unverified information to create panic, incite communal disharmony, and disturb public order in India.

The blocked social media accounts include six Pakistan-based and 10 India-based YouTube news channels, having a cumulative viewership of over 68 crores.

Earlier India had banned 22 YouTube channels earlier in April 2022 for spreading misinformation about India while 20 more were banned in December last year. Some of these banned channels were run out of Pakistan.

Continuing to crack down on the disinformation campaign against India, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting banned 16 more YouTube channels, 6 of them from Pakistan.

As per the ministry, these channels were involved in targeted disinformation against India, that was designed to hurt India’s internal security, foreign relations, and public order.

One of the banned YouTube channels is Tahaffuz-E-Deen India with over 7 lakh subscribers and over 10 crore views. The channel spread several lies in recent times, including alleging that the mastermind of the Ludhiana court blast was a Hindu. The channel also addressed Hindus organizing Shobha yatra in Bhopal on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti as terrorists and promoted several such communal news with no basis in truth.

Moreover, highlighting the content published by Indian YouTube channels, the release stated, “examples include false claims related to the announcement of a pan-India lockdown due to COVID-19 thereby threatening the migrant workers, and fabricated claims alleging threats to certain religious communities, etc. Such content was observed to be detrimental to public order in the country.”

As per the release, multiple India-based YouTube channels were observed to publish unverified news and videos having the potential to create panic among various sections of the society.

YouTube channels based in Pakistan were found to have been used in a coordinated manner to post fake news about India on various subjects such as the Indian Army, Jammu, and Kashmir, and India’s foreign relations in the light of the situation in Ukraine among others, it said.

The content of these channels was observed to be completely false, and sensitive from the perspective of national security, sovereignty, and integrity of India, and India’s friendly relations with foreign States, it added.

Image source: PIB