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NEW DELHI: India’s government has banned 22 YouTube channels, including four based in Pakistan, for alleged disinformation on subjects concerning national security and public order.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting said the blocked YouTube channels had a combined total of 2.6 billion viewers. These include 18 Indian YouTube news channels that have been blocked for the first time under IT Rules, 2021, and four Pakistan-based YouTube news channels.
“Multiple YouTube channels were used to post fake news on various subjects such as the Indian Armed Forces,” the Indian government said in a statement. It said these YouTube channels used logos of TV news channels and false thumbnails to mislead viewers.
Among channels in India that were blocked, one named ARP News had 4.4 crore subscribers, followed by AOP News with 74 lakh subscribers, and LDC News with 4.7 lakh subscribers. The Pakistani YouTube channels blocked include ‘Duniya Mery Aagy’ had 420,000 subscribers with its total views crossing 11.2 crore, ‘Ghulam Nabi Madni’ had over 37.09 lakh views, and ‘HAQEEQAT TV’ had more than 40 lakh subscribers.
In addition, three Twitter accounts, one Facebook account, and one news website were also blocked. This includes ‘Ghulam Nabi Madni’, with 5,553 followers, ‘Dunya Mery Aagy’ with 4,063 followers and ‘Haqeeqat TV’ with 3,23,800 followers.
“These channels were involved in spreading misinformation impacting India’s sovereignty, national security & relations with other countries. They were spreading fake news about the pandemic & Russia-Ukraine crisis. We won’t shy away from taking such action in future,” Union I&B Minister Anurag Thakur said.
In December and January, the information ministry used similar emergency powers to block 55 channels on YouTube, and some Twitter and Facebook accounts. The Indian government has been using new IT rules introduced in 2021 which were mostly aimed at regulating large social media firms and gave the government more powers to take down content.
