The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed YouTube to take down the three channels, Aaj Tak Live, News Headlines, and Sarkari Updates, for spreading fake news in the country.
The three YouTube channels had nearly 33 lakh subscribers, and their videos, almost all of which were found to be false, were watched over 30 crore times.
In a statement, the PIB Fact Check Unit said that these YouTube channels were spreading false and sensational claims about the Prime Minister of India, the Election Commission of India, the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of India, and other government schemes.
These channels were monetizing misinformation by displaying advertisements, the PIB said. In the past year, its fact-check unit has blocked over 100 YouTube channels.
Over 40 channels circulating false news were checked. This is for the first time when PIB has exposed the entire YouTube channels as against the individual posts detected spreading the lies.
It said, the channels were using fake and sensational thumbnails with logos of TV channels and images of their news anchors to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic, were observed. These channels were also found to be displaying advertisements on their videos, and monetizing misinformation on YouTube.
