New Delhi: The Centre on Friday blocked at least six youtube channels for allegedly promoting pro-Khalistan sentiments, news agency PTI quoted a senior official as saying. Apurva Chandra, the secretary for information and broadcasting, claimed that during the last ten days, six to eight foreign-operated YouTube channels had been disabled. He said that the Punjabi-language channels were attempting to stir up unrest in the border state. The government move followed supporters of the radical preacher and Khalistan sympathiser Amritpal Singh storming into the Ajnala police station with swords and guns to seek the release of one of their aides.
Singh was appointed leader of the ‘Waris Punjab De’, founded by actor and activist late Deep Sidhu, last year during a ceremony in Moga’s Rode, the hometown of slain militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.
Another senior official said YouTube has been taking action on the government’s requests to block channels within 48 hours.
The official said that the government has also asked YouTube to use artificial intelligence and algorithms to identify and block objectionable content automatically.
However, in the Indian context YouTube was facing problems as content was being uploaded in regional languages and the systems were in place to screen content in the English language.
Also Read: Who Is Amritpal Singh – Pro-Khalistani Leader And Head Of Waris Punjab De
Earlier in January, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting busted six YouTube channels that were working in a coordinated manner and spreading false information in India. These six channels were found to be operating as part of a coordinated disinformation network and had over 20 lakh subscribers.
According to the Ministry, their videos have been watched over 51 crore times and spread fake news about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, elections, proceedings in the Supreme Court and Parliament of India, the functioning of the Government of India, etc.
They also made false claims regarding the ban on Electronic Voting Machines (ECMs), and false statements attributed to senior Constitutional functionaries including the President of India and the Chief Justice of India.
“The channels are part of a fake news economy that thrives on monetization of fake news. The channels use fake, clickbait and sensational thumbnails and images of television news anchors of TV Channels to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic and drive traffic to their channels in order to monetize the videos published by them,” the IB Ministry said.