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The central government has an official information channel, the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Flagged 40 fact checks On the popular video streaming platform, YouTube. The YouTube channels in question are named News Headlines, Sarkari Update and Aaj Tak Live and have a following of over 33 lakh subscribers.
According to a PIB press release, the YouTube channels Flagged “Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, for spreading false and sensational claims about government schemes, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), farm loan waivers etc. and other fake news”.
How fake YouTube accounts spread
According to the PIB, the information fraudulently propagated by the dubious channels included “fake news that the Supreme Court has ruled that future elections will be conducted through ballot papers; Government giving money to people who have bank accounts, Aadhaar cards and PAN cards; Ban on EVMs etc.”
According to the report, the accounts were flagged for misinformation, as well as attempts to impersonate them using logos of television channels to gain credibility among viewers. Accounts in question also appeared to use their thumbnails to attract the attention of prominent news personalities.
Although the accounts have been flagged for spreading misleading information, 91Mobiles can independently confirm that they have not been removed from the platform at the time of publishing this report. As a result, the content will remain on the platform, at least for now.
PIB does not explain the complete course of action to be followed now after flagging the accounts. It is not clear whether the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) will issue Google takedown notices to suspend content from the platform. However, PIB said in its official statement and release that over 100 accounts have been banned from the platform over the last one year as the I&B Ministry has taken action against accounts spreading false information on YouTube.