Government bans 45 YouTube videos from 10 channels for spreading hate

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

New Delhi, Sep 26, 2022: The Indian government sprung into action on Monday to block 45 videos on YouTube from across 10 different YouTube channels. The Ministry confirmed the removal of the content was based on spreading disinformation related to the Agnipath scheme and sensitive from a national security point of view.

 

“Some of the videos blocked by the Ministry were being used to spread disinformation on issues related to the Agnipath scheme, Indian Armed Forces, India’s national security apparatus, Kashmir, etc.

The content was observed to be false and sensitive from the perspective of national security and India’s friendly relations with foreign States,” the Ministry statement said.

The Ministry also informed that the blocked videos had collectively got over 1 crore viewership, which suggests his wide reach and access to people in different parts of the country. The statement says the order was issued on September 23 under the purview of the IT Rules 2021.

“The content included fake news and morphed videos spread with the intent to spread hatred among religious communities. Examples include false claims such as the Government has taken away the religious rights of certain communities, violent threats against religious communities, declaration of civil war in India, etc,” it adds.

The Government has issued similar sanctions in the past few months. The nature of the channels publishing content has been mostly related to communal hatred and other disinformation that can become hard to control if it spreads like a wildfire. The action against these channels helps the Government and YouTube to monitor the content published by content creators.