PIB Busts 6 YouTube Channels For Spreading Fake News

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) fact check unit Press Information Bureau (PIB) has busted six YouTube channels that were working concertedly and spreading false information in India.

Nation TV, Samvaad TV, Sarokar Bharat, Nation 24, Swarnim Bharat and Samvaad Samachar are the busted YouTube channels. These channels had about 20 Lakh subscribers and their content was viewed for more than 51 Cr times.

“The fact check unit released six separate Twitter threads having over 100 fact-checks to counter the fake news spread by these channels. This is the second such action from the Unit under the MIB where entire channels have been busted,” PIB said.

This time PIB has exposed these YouTube Channels that were spreading fake news related to

Indian elections, proceedings in the apex court and Parliament of India, functioning of the central government, etc.

Some of the false claims made by the above YouTube channels included ban of EVM machines and false statements associated with India’s President and chief justice of the country.

In the statement, PIB shared that these YouTube channels were part of a fake news group that were mainly thriving on monetisation 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,” PIB added.

Before this, PIB banned three YouTube-based news channels in December last year, for spreading misinformation on India’s apex court, chief justice of India, government schemes, electronic voting machines and farm loan waivers.

The three YouTube channels–News Headlines, Sarkari Update, Aaj Tak Live had about 33 Lakh subscribers and a viewership of more than 30 Cr+ in total.

Prior to this, in august last year, MIB abolished eight YouTube channels, one Facebook account, and two Facebook posts under the IT rules (2021) for showcasing false content, which was detrimental to the country’s foreign relations and public order. In 2021 too, the ministry banned YouTube channels for disseminating false information.

Further, during 2021 July till the entire 2022, the Centre abolished 94 YouTube channels, 19 social media accounts and 747 websites that were spreading misinformation and posed threat to the nation’s sovereignty and integrity, Union Minister Anurag Thakur had said.