Daily Times

The government has banned eight YouTube channels with over 114 crore viewers for propagating false content. Seven of the channels were from India and one was Pakistan based. The restricted stations were “monetizing fake, anti-India content,” the ministry of information and broadcasting claimed in a statement.

The government claimed that the channels were disseminating false information about India’s foreign relations, public order, and national security. According to the statement, “The content was observed to be completely false and sensitive from the perspective of national security and India’s friendly relations with foreign states.”

Loktantra TV, U&V TV, AM Razvi, Gouravshali Pawan Mithilanchal, SeeTop5TH, Sarkari Update, and Sab Kuch Dekho are the seven Indian networks that have been suspended.

‘News ki Dunya’ was the Pakistan-based channel that has been blocked. Around 85 lakh users had subscribed to the channels. Apart from these one Facebook account and two Facebook posts have been blocked.

To mislead users, the ministry said and make their content seem “authentic”, the channels – based in India “were observed to be using fake and sensational thumbnails, images of news anchors and logos of certain TV news channels”.

“All the YouTube channels blocked by the Ministry were displaying advertisements on their videos having false content detrimental to communal harmony, public order and India’s foreign relations,” the government further underlined.