According to the centre, three YouTube channels with a combined 33 lakh followers have been exposed for disseminating false information against the Indian Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and other important institutions. Aaj Tak Live, Sarkari Update, and News Headlines are the YouTube channels.
The fact-checking division of the Press Information Bureau, the government’s nodal institution for information dissemination, investigated these three channels. The team undertook a series of over 40 fact-checks and discovered various films promoting false information about the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Supreme Court, the Election Commission, and the EVM voting technology. The government claimed that these films had received over 30 crore views.
YouTube channel “?? ?? LIVE” is another den of #FakeNews. With over 65,000 subscribers, the YouTube channel spreads false claims about the death of various persons and misinformation about Government decisions. Here’s a thread by @PIBFactCheck busting some of its claims? pic.twitter.com/91fyeToq5h
— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 20, 2022
Among the examples of false material spread over the channels were news stories purporting that future elections will be conducted using a ballot mechanism. According to a different video, the government is allegedly giving money to everyone with a bank account or an Aadhaar card.
The investigation discovered that these YouTube channels were exploiting photographs of well-known news presenters and TV channel logos to trick viewers into thinking the information was real. According to the PIB statement, ‘These channels were also discovered to be advertising on their videos and monetizing false material on YouTube’. A s part of its campaign against false information, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has banned more than 100 YouTube channels in the past year.
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