More Than Six YouTube Channels Banned By PIB For Spreading False News; Check Details Here
New Delhi, 12th January 2023: Six YouTube channels that were operating in concert and disseminating misleading material in India were shut down by the PIB Fact Check Unit (FCU) of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. To combat the false information supplied by these sources, the Fact Check Unit published six distinct Twitter threads with more than 100 fact-checks.
This is the second time the Unit under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has taken such action, busting entire channels.
The six YouTube channels that were discovered to be part of a coordinated disinformation network each had close to 20 lakh subscribers and over 51 million video views.
The following are specifics of these YouTube channels that PIB fact-checked:
Information &Broadcasting ministry cracks down on fake news peddling YouTube Channels. Busted channels are part of the fake news economy. The channels use fake, clickbait & sensational thumbnails & images of television news anchors of TV Channels to mislead: PIB pic.twitter.com/EcE4RoBZ9e
— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2023
The PIB Fact Check unit discovered several YouTube channels that disseminated false information concerning Indian elections, Supreme Court and Parliament proceedings, government operations, and other topics. Examples include untrue claims that Electronic Voting Machines are banned and false statements regarding prominent constitutional figures like the Hon. President of India and the Hon. Chief Justice of India.
The channels are a part of a fake news ecosystem that makes money by spreading false information. The channels mislead the viewers into thinking that the news was real and attract traffic to their channels to monetize the videos they publish by using sensational, clickbait, and phony thumbnails and images of television news anchors.
The PIB Fact Check Unit has taken similar measures twice before. On December 20, 2022, the Unit exposed three channels that were spreading fake news in a previous big activity.
