The Government of India (GOI) on Tuesday blocked 20 YouTube channels and two websites for spreading “anti-India propaganda”. The centre said these channels were sharing factually incorrect content on sensitive topics like Kashmir, Indian Army, minority communities, Ram Mandir, and many more.
"Efforts are being made from across the border to spread fear and confusion through fake news and anti-India content," Union Minister Anurag Thakur said in a video message.
"Action has been taken against them under the IT rules so that the agenda that Pakistan carries out against India (is blunted)... Strict action has been taken against them so that such forces do not work against India," he added.
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The Government said these channels and websites were run from Pakistan under the ‘Naya Pakistan’ group and had a viewership of over 55 crore.
"The Naya Pakistan Group was running 15 channels," Thakur said, adding, "There were five standalone channels and two web portals. They were violating rules so a strong investigation was conducted,"
As per the information shared by the ministry, the blocked channels include The Punch Line, International Web News, The Naked Truth, Fictional, 48 News, Historical Facts and Cover Story.
It was the first order under the new information technology rules, which were introduced in February.
The ministry said it has acted to “secure the information space in India, and utilized emergency powers under the Rule 16 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021".