The blocked YouTube videos had Viewership of over 1 crore...
Spreading communal disharmony, misinformation, or showcasing something unusual which hampers or provokes citizens and leads to crime or any sort of riot is a crime. The Government has banned 45 YouTube channels.
As per the information, these 45 channels have been banned due to misinformation or they were showcasing something which could lead to communal harmony. The information stated that the blocked channels were having around 1crore viewership.
According to the statement given by "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.
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.
Further 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 ministry said that the government remains committed to thwarting any attempts at undermining India’s sovereignty and integrity, national security, foreign relations, and public order.
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