Government bans 78 YouTube news channels, alleging IT Act violations.
Taking major action on Tuesday, the Government of India has blocked 78 YouTube news channels and their social media accounts. Giving information about this, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said that an order has been issued to close this YouTube news channel and his social media account.
This action has been taken for the violation of Section 69-A of the IT Act 2000. According to Singh, the government has blocked 560 YouTube URLs in the last two years. The number of viewers on the blocked YouTube news channels was more than 68 million.
The Information and Broadcasting Minister gave this information while answering a written question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. In fact, Congress MP from Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar Manickam Tagore B had sought details of the number of YouTube news channels closed by the government.
Similar action has already been taken by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Earlier this year also 16 YouTube news channels were shut down. Of these, 10 Indian channels and 6 YouTube news channels operating from Pakistan were blocked due to allegations of damaging India’s image in the national security and public order of India. This action was taken under the IT Act 2021.
Action was also taken on 5th April
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had also taken action on April 5 this year under the IT Act 2021 using emergency power. In this action 22 YouTube news channels, three Twitter accounts and one Facebook account along with one news website were also shut down. The viewership on these channels was more than 250 crores. False and misleading information was being spread by these channels on topics like Indian Army and India’s foreign relations.
