Guwahati: The Indian government on Monday in an effort to sow communal unrest throughout the nation, ordered the shutdown of 10 YouTube channels for hate speech directed at religious communities
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced that 45 videos from 10 YouTube channels had been removed based on information provided by the intelligence services, who were acting on their advise.
“On September 23, in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, orders were issued to prohibit the relevant videos. The prohibited videos received over 1 crore 30 lakh views overall “authorities stated.
The ministry further asserted that the purpose of the fake news and phoney films contained in these videos was to sow discord among the nation’s communities.
“The government is alleged to have revoked the religious freedoms of some groups, made violent threats against religious groups, declared civil war in India, etc. Such movies were found to have the potential to promote communal strife and disrupt public order in the country,” officials added.
Disinformation about the Agnipath project, the Indian Armed Forces, India’s national security apparatus, Kashmir, etc. is among the movies that have been prohibited. In certain videos, India’s exterior borders were incorrectly depicted, showing areas of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as being outside of Indian territory.
“The content that the Ministry restricted was determined to be harmful to India’s sovereignty and integrity, security, good ties with other countries, and domestic public order. As a result, the information was covered by section 69A of the Information Technology Act of 2000. The Indian government is steadfast in its resolve to thwart any attempts to undermine India’s integrity, security, and foreign and domestic policies “Regarding the ban, authorities added.
Anurag Singh Thakur, the Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, tweeted, “Ten YouTube channels have been suspended and banned by the Ministry for spreading hate speech about the nation while attempting to undermine relations with friendly nations. It has been done in the past for the good of the country and will be done in the future as well.”
Anti-Indian content has previously been prohibited by the Union Government. Four Facebook pages, five Twitter accounts, three Instagram profiles, and 102 YouTube channels have all been blocked so far for propagating hate speech against India.