E-Paper
‘Peddling fake news’: I&B ministry exposes 6 YouTube channels
Information and Broadcasting Ministry said these channels spread false information such as making claims regarding ban on electronic voting machines (EVM), falsely attributing the President or Chief Justice of India.
The fact-check unit of the Union information and broadcasting ministry on Thursday busted around six YouTube channels for allegedly spreading false information in the country. In a six-series Twitter thread, the PIB (Press Information Bureau) fact-check unit (FCU) released several evidences to prove these channels' attempts to spread fake news.
Read| IB ministry pulls up TV channels for ‘distasteful, disturbing & violent content’
“The six YouTube channels were found to be operating as part of a coordinated disinformation network, had nearly 20 lakh subscribers and their videos have been watched over 51 crore times,” the ministry said in a press release.
Check out the list of channels here:
| Channels | Subscribers |
| Nation TV | 5.57 lakh |
| Samvaad TV | 10.9 lakh |
| Sarokar Bharat | 21.1 thousand |
| Nation 24 | 25.4 thousand |
| Swarnim Bharat | 6.07 thousand |
| Samvaad Samachar | 3.48 lakh |
According to the ministry, these channels spread false information regarding Supreme Court and Parliament proceedings, elections, Union government among others, such as claims regarding ban on electronic voting machines (EVM), falsely attributing President or Chief Justice of India. “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,” the ministry added.
Earlier, the ministry undertook such measure and exposed three YouTube channels “peddling fake news” in the country.
