On Monday, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shut 16 YouTube news channels for allegedly propagating false information on the country’s national security, foreign relations, and public order.
Under the IT Rules, 2021, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting used emergency powers to restrict 10 Indian and six Pakistani YouTube channels.
In a statement, the Ministry said, ‘The blocked social media accounts include six Pakistan-based and 10 India-based YouTube news channels, having a cumulative viewership of over 68 crore. It was observed that these channels were used to spread fake news over social media on matters related to national security, India’s foreign relations, communal harmony in the country, and public order. None of the digital news publishers had furnished information to the Ministry as required under Rule 18 of the IT Rules, 2021’.
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It said that some videos of the India-based YouTube channels labelled a group of people as terrorists and incited enmity among members of various religious communities. ‘Such content was found to have the potential to create communal disharmony, and disturb public order’.
This comes only two days after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued a stern recommendation to all private television networks on Saturday, citing last week’s violence in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and ‘certain news debates’.
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