Indian government bans six YouTube channels for spreading fake news

The government of India on Thursday banned six YouTube channels for propagating fake news and misinformation in its latest attempt to curb the spread of fake news on social media platforms.

In a series of tweets published by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) names of these channels and the fake news being spread by them were listed. The names of these channels are Nation TV, Sarokar Bharat, Nation 24, Samvad Samachar, Swarnim Bharat, and Sambad TV.

In a statement, the PIB said, "Information & Broadcast ministry cracks down on fake news peddling YouTube Channels. Busted channels are part of the fake news economy. The channels use fake, clickbait, and sensational thumbnails and images of television news anchors of TV Channels to mislead."

The banned YouTube channels were called out by the PIB Fact Check unit. These channels spread rampant fake news about the elections, proceedings in the Supreme Court and Parliament of India, the functioning of the Government of India, and more, PIB said in a statement.

Some of their videos showcased false claims regarding a ban on Electronic Voting Machines, and false statements attributed to senior Constitutional functionaries including the Hon’ble President of India and Chief Justice of India.

The PIB tweeted, "A #YouTube channel ‘Nation Tv’ with over 550K subscribers & over 21 crore views has been found to be propagating #FakeNews about the President, Union Ministers & the Election Commission of India. #PIBFactCheck found almost all of its content to be fake."

This is the second such action by the PIB fact check unit as it was in December 2022 when the I&B ministry had banned 104 YouTube channels, 45 videos, four Facebook accounts, three Instagram accounts, five Twitter handles, and six websites for threatening national security and spreading fake news.
 

Also read: OpenAI tests the premium version of ChatGPT; here's how you can get it

Also read: Samsung confirms Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event for Feb 1; expected to launch S23