According to the ministry, the blocked videos had a cumulative viewership of over 1.30 crore views. The blocked content included fake news and morphed videos intended to spread hatred among religious communities

The I&B ministry has, from time to time, issued orders to take down YouTube channels for spreading misinformation and threatening the country’s sovereignty under the new IT rules incorporated on February 25 last year.

The Narendra Modi government on Monday blocked 45 videos from ten YouTube channels after they were found containing hate speeches against religious communities and trying to spread communal disharmony.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said morphed videos and images were being used to harm India's national security, foreign relations and public order.

Acting on intelligence inputs, The I&B ministry directed video streaming platform YouTube to immediately block those 45 videos on September 23 under the provisions of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.

“The ministry of information and broadcasting has banned ten YouTube channels which were spewing venom against India, trying to damage India's relations with other countries through fake news. We have done this before in the interests of the nation, will continue to do so in future”, union I&B minister Anurag Thakur said.

According to the ministry, the blocked videos had a cumulative viewership of over 1.30 crore views. The blocked content included fake news and morphed videos intended to spread hatred among religious communities.

According to the ministry, the blocked videos included false claims like the Centre snatching away the religious rights of certain communities, violent threats against religious communities, declaration of civil war in India, etc.

"Such videos were found to have the potential to cause communal disharmony and disrupt public order in the country. Some of the videos blocked by the Ministry were being used to spread disinformation on issues related to Agnipath scheme, Indian Armed Forces, India’s national security apparatus, Kashmir etc.

According to the government, certain videos depicted an erroneous boundary of India with parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh outside the boundaries of the Indian territory.

“Such cartographic misrepresentation was found to be detrimental to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. The content blocked by the Ministry was found to be detrimental to sovereignty and integrity of India, security of the State, India’s friendly relations with foreign States, and public order in the country”, the ministry said.