New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday informed that 8 YouTube channels including one based in Pakistan have been blocked for spreading “hatred among religious communities in India.”

“The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, utilizing the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021, has issued orders on 16.08.2022 for blocking of eight (8) YouTube based news channels, one (1) Facebook account, and two Facebook posts,” said the official statement.

The blocked YouTube channels had a cumulative viewership of over 114 crore, were subscribed by over 85 lakh users.

The purpose of the content published by some of these YouTube channels was to spread hatred among religious communities in India. False claims were made in various videos of the blocked YouTube channels.

Examples include fake news such as the Government of India to have ordered demolition of religious structures or banning celebration of religious festivals, declaring of religious war in India, etc.

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Such content was found to have the potential to create communal disharmony and disturb public order in the country.

The YouTube channels were also used to post fake news on various subjects such as the Indian Armed Forces, Jammu and Kashmir, etc.

The content was observed to be completely false and sensitive from the perspective of national security and India’s friendly relations with foreign States.

Modus Operandi

The Indian YouTube channels, which are now blocked, used fake and sensational thumbnails, images of news anchors and logos of certain TV news channels to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic.

All the blocked YouTube channels displayed advertisements on their videos having false content detrimental to communal harmony, public order and India’s foreign relations.