The Indian government on Monday asked video streaming giant YouTube to block 45 videos from 10 YouTube channels. The blocked videos included content such as fake news and morphed videos and they were being circulated with the intent to spread hatred among religious communities.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting asked YouTube to block these YouTube videos that had a cumulative viewership of over 1 crore 30 lakh views, based on inputs from intelligence agencies. Orders to block the concerned videos were issued on September 23 under the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.
The videos being circulated on YouTube included 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. Such videos were found to have the potential to cause communal disharmony and disrupt public order in the country, according to the I&B Ministry.
"Some of the videos blocked by the Ministry were being used to spread disinformation on issues related to 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 said in a statement.
According to the I&B Ministry, the content on the channels was found to be detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, India’s friendly relations with foreign States, and public order in the country. The content was covered within the ambit of section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Earlier in August, the central government had blocked eight YouTube channels for spreading disinformation related to India’s national security, foreign relations, and public order. According to the I&B Ministry, the blocked YouTube-based news channels had over 114 crore views and 85 lakh and 73 thousand subscribers. The ministry added that the fake anti-India content was being monetised by the blocked channels on YouTube.