45 YouTube videos have been blocked by India for spreading fake news
The centre has blocked 45 YouTube videos from 10 channels for playing fake news and morphed visuals to spread hate among religious communities.
Examples include false claims such as the government taking away the religious rights of certain communities, violent threats against religious communities and declaration of civil war in India.
"Such videos were found to have the potential to cause communal disharmony and disrupt public order in the country," the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said in a statement today.
The government said it blocked the videos based on inputs from intelligence agencies. The blocked videos had a cumulative view count of over 1. 3 crore.
"Some of the videos blocked by the ministry were being used to spread disinformation on issues related to the Agnipath scheme, Indian armed forces, India's national security apparatus, Kashmir, etc. The content was observed to be false and sensitive from the perspective of national security and India's friendly relations with foreign states," the government said in the statement.
"Certain videos depicted erroneous external boundary of India with parts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh outside Indian territory. Such cartographic misrepresentation was found to be detrimental to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India," it said.