India has ordered blocking of 35 Pakistan-based YouTube channels and two websites for “spreading anti-India fake news in a coordinated manner over digital media”, the government said on Friday. “These channels were toxic and spreading anti-India propaganda,” information and broadcasting ministry secretary Apurva Chandra said in a Press conference. “More and more such channels will continue to be blocked. Not only intelligence agencies, we urge the people to come forward and notify us of such content.” Chandra also reminded YouTube that the company should have also kept track of the content uploaded on its platform. “This is also the responsibility of the intermediaries. YouTube should also see that these are absolutely fake news,” he said, referring to India’s new intermediary rules notified last year. This is the second instance of the government blocking YouTube channels and websites linked to Pakistan in the last month. On December 21, the government said 20 YouTube channels were ordered to be blocked under emergency provisions incorporated in the information technology rules last February. YouTube later took down those channels. Union minister of information and technology Anurag Thakur said that any social media account trying to mislead the public would be taken down. “Any account … Continue reading India blocks 35 Pakistan-based YouTube channels