Centre Directs YouTube to Delete 45 Videos For ‘Spreading Hatred’

The Centre has directed YouTube to delete 45 videos from its 10 channels under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, for allegedly containing “fake news and morphed videos aimed at spreading hatred among religious communities”.

According to an information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry statement, the videos “include false claims such as the government has taken away the religious rights of certain communities, violent threats against religious communities and declaration of civil war in India, etc”.

The videos were found to “have the potential to cause communal disharmony and disrupt public order in the country”, the ministry added, according to a report filed by The Hindu.

I&B minister Anurag Singh Thakur told the media that these channels were “found to have been involved in the conspiracy to spread hatred in the country, and the content is detrimental to India’s friendly relation with foreign states” adding that “action will be taken against all such sites and channels in the future as well”.

#BreakingNews | @MIB_India blocks 45 YouTube videos from 10 YouTube channels under IT Rules, 2021.

Videos containing hateful speech against religious communities and spreading communal disharmony blocked.@ianuragthakur pic.twitter.com/trWZStq2Dm

— DD News (@DDNewslive) September 26, 2022

The videos, with cumulative views of more than 1.30 crore,

include 13 from a YouTube channel called The Live TV, 9 from Hind Voice, 6 each from Inqilab Live and Desh India Live, 4 from Mr Reaction Wala, 2 each from GetsetflyFACT and 4PM, and one each from the channels of National Adda, Dhruv Rathee and Vinay Pratap Singh Bhopar, The Indian Express reported.

Some of the videos, blocked on intelligence inputs, “depicted parts of J&K and Ladakh outside the Indian territory. Such cartographic misrepresentation was found to be detrimental to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India”, the ministry said adding that they came under the ambit of Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

Other videos were being “used to spread disinformation on issues related to the Agnipath scheme, the armed forces, the national security apparatus and Kashmir”, the ministry added. “The content was observed to be false and sensitive from the perspective of national security and India’s friendly relations with foreign states”.

The action comes after ministry blocked seven Indian and one Pakistan-based YouTube news channels which had 114 crore views and 85.73 lakh subscribers in August on the charge of spreading disinformation regarding India’s national security, foreign relations, and public order, The Hindu reported. Since December 2021, similar action has been taken against more than 100 YouTube news channels and several other social media accounts.