By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The Fact Check Unit (FCU) of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Tuesday called out three YouTube channels which were spreading false information. These digital media outlets jointly had 33 lakh subscribers and their videos, mostly false news reports, were watched over 30 crore times, said the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B).
This is the first time when PIB has exposed entire YouTube channels as against individual posts on social media spreading false claims, said the ministry. The channels which were ‘exposed’ by the PIB, which functions under I&B ministry, are News Headlines, which had 9.67 lakh subscribers and garnered 31 crore views and ‘Sarkari Update’ with 22.6 lakh subscribers and over eight lakh viewership.
The third channel is ‘Aaj Tak Live’ which had about 65,000 subscribers and its videos had been seen over 1.25 crore times. “This is a summary action by the FCU. As they don’t violate the provisions under Information Technology Rules, 2021, blocking orders have not been issued.
As per the rules, the ministry may write to the social media platforms like YouTube, if any news outlet is found to be detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India… This exposure provides ample ground to initiate a procedure to ban or block them,” a government official said.
NEW DELHI: The Fact Check Unit (FCU) of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) on Tuesday called out three YouTube channels which were spreading false information. These digital media outlets jointly had 33 lakh subscribers and their videos, mostly false news reports, were watched over 30 crore times, said the ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B).
This is the first time when PIB has exposed entire YouTube channels as against individual posts on social media spreading false claims, said the ministry. The channels which were ‘exposed’ by the PIB, which functions under I&B ministry, are News Headlines, which had 9.67 lakh subscribers and garnered 31 crore views and ‘Sarkari Update’ with 22.6 lakh subscribers and over eight lakh viewership.
The third channel is ‘Aaj Tak Live’ which had about 65,000 subscribers and its videos had been seen over 1.25 crore times. “This is a summary action by the FCU. As they don’t violate the provisions under Information Technology Rules, 2021, blocking orders have not been issued.
As per the rules, the ministry may write to the social media platforms like YouTube, if any news outlet is found to be detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India… This exposure provides ample ground to initiate a procedure to ban or block them,” a government official said.
