Ministry of I&B cracks down on fake news peddling YouTube Channels

The Fact Check Unit released six separate Twitter threads having over 100 fact-checks to counter the fake news spread by these channels. This is the second such action from the Unit under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting where entire channels have been busted.

New Delhi:The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting busted six YouTube channels which were working in a coordinated manner and spreading false information in India. The Fact Check Unit released six separate Twitter threads having over 100 fact-checks to counter the fake news spread by these channels. This is the second such action from the Unit under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting where entire channels have been busted.

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. Details of these YouTube channels fact-checked by PIB are as under:

SI. No.	Name of YouTube Channel	Subscribers	Views
	Nation Tv	5.57 Lakh	21,09,87,523
	Samvaad Tv	10.9 Lakh	17,31,51,998
	Sarokar Bharat	21.1 thousand	45,00,971
	Nation 24	25.4 thousand	43,37,729
	Swarnim Bharat	6.07 thousand	10,13,013
	Samvaad Samachar	3.48 Lakh	11,93,05,103
Total	20.47 Lakh	51,32,96,337

The YouTube channels exposed by the PIB Fact Check unit spread fake news about the elections, proceedings in the Supreme Court and Parliament of India, the functioning of the Government of India, etc. Examples include false claims regarding the ban on Electronic Voting Machines and false statements attributed to senior Constitutional functionaries including the President of India, and Chief Justice of India.

The channels are part of a fake news economy that thrives on the monetization of fake news. 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.

This is the second such action by PIB Fact Check Unit. In an earlier major action, on December 20, 2022, the Unit exposed three channels peddling fake news.