Centre bans 45 YouTube videos for spreading misinformation, communal disharmony

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed online video sharing and social media platform - YouTube to block 45 videos from 10 channels. The blocked videos had a cumulative viewership of over 1 crore 30 lakh views. YouTuber Dhruv Rathee's video is among those blocked.

The decision was taken on September 23 based on input from intelligence agencies.

"The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has banned and suspended 10 YouTube channels for attempting to sabotage ties with friendly countries through misinformation, spewing venom against the country. It has been done before in the interest of the nation, will also do it in future," the I&B Minister Anurag Thakur said.

“Orders to block the concerned videos were issued on 23.09.2022 under the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021,” the



ministry said in a statement.

The content of these videos included fake news and morphed videos spread with the intent to spread hatred among religious communities.

Examples include false claims such as the government having taken away the religious rights of certain communities, violent threats against religious communities, declaration of civil war in India and others. Such videos were found to have the potential to cause communal disharmony and disrupt public order in the country.

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 and other.

“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.