Government Busts Youtube Channels Spreading Fake News

New Delhi: Three YouTube channels that were purportedly circulating false information in the nation were busted today by the Government of India.

The Press Information Bureau’s Fact Check Unit claimed in a statement that these YouTube channels were disseminating incorrect and sensational statements against the Indian Prime Minister, the Supreme Court of India, the Chief Justice of India, the Election Commission, and other government institutions.

According to the PIB team, these YouTube channels had close to 33 lakh followers and their nearly entirely fraudulent videos had received over 30 crore views. According to the report, it was discovered that certain YouTube channels were utilising fake, sensationalised thumbnails with TV channel logos and pictures of their news anchors to clickbait viewers into thinking the news was real. These channels were also discovered to be monetizing false information on YouTube by including advertisements in their videos.

The three channels that were exposed by the government are-

1. News Headlines

A #YouTube channel ‘News Headlines’ with almost 10 lakh subscribers and 32 crore views has been found to be propagating #FakeNews about the Prime Minister, Supreme Court of India, Chief Justice of India, and the Election Commission of India pic.twitter.com/9qUR7xqBd9

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 20, 2022

2. Sarkari Update

A YouTube channel ‘SarkariUpdate’ with over 2.26M subscribers found to be propagating #FakeNews about various schemes of the Government of India. @PIBFactCheck found almost all of its content to be fake. Here’s a thread⬇️ pic.twitter.com/yg309uwRq2

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 20, 2022

3. Aajtak Live

YouTube channel “आज तक LIVE” is another den of #FakeNews. With over 65,000 subscribers, the YouTube channel spreads false claims about the death of various persons and misinformation about Government decisions. Here’s a thread by @PIBFactCheck busting some of its claims🔽 pic.twitter.com/91fyeToq5h

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) December 20, 2022

Earlier last year, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had blocked more than 100 such misleading YouTube channels.