Govt tells YouTube to take down 3 channels with nearly 33 lakh subscribers over ‘fake news’

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed YouTube to take down three channels for allegedly making fake claims. 

The channels are Aaj Tak Live, News Headlines, and Sarkari Updates. According to a tweet by DD India, the action came after the channels were found to be peddlers of fake news by PIB’s fact checking unit on Tuesday. They allegedly made fake claims about the supreme court, the prime minister, chief justice, farm loan waivers, Aadhaar schemes, and EVMs, and also allegedly used fake thumbnails containing logos of authentic TV channels and morphed images of prominent news anchors.

News Headlines, according to PIB, published fake news about the PM, supreme court, chief justice and EC. The bureau attached examples of these claims, such as the CJI declaring the PM guilty of sedition.

Meanwhile, with around 65,000 subscribers, Aaj Tak Live allegedly claimed that former PM Manmohan Singh had died and all farm loans had been waived off. It also used pictures of popular anchors such as Anjana Om Kashyap. PIB also clarified that this channel had nothing to do with the India Today Group and its Aaj Tak channel. 

Sarkari Update had over 2.26 million subscribers and allegedly said that the government was giving Rs 89,000 in cash to Aadhaar holders and Rs 3,000 to anyone with a bank account.

As per a LiveMint report, the three Youtube channels had a total of nearly 33 lakh subscribers and the videos on their pages had clocked over 30 crore views. The channels were also airing advertisements on their videos and monetising them.