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

PIB Fact Check exposes over hundred videos on six channels that have monetized fake news; garnered over 50 crore views

Busted channels part of fake news economy; have a combined following of over 20 lakhs

Channels using clickbait thumbnails to peddle fake news pertaining to President, Prime Minister, Union Ministers and Election Commission

By PIB Delhi

The PIB Fact Check Unit (FCU) of 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, functioning of the Government of India, etc. Examples include false claims regarding ban on Electronic Voting Machines, and false statements attributed to senior Constitutional functionaries including the Hon’ble President of India, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India.

The channels are part of a fake news economy that thrives on 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 20^th December, 2022, the Unit had exposed three channels peddling fake news.

Links of the Twitter threads posted by PIB Fact-Check Unit:

1. Fact-checks on videos of Nation Tv:  

A #YouTube channel ‘Nation Tv’ with over 550K subscribers & over 21 crore views has been found to be propagating #FakeNews about the President, Union Ministers & the Election Commission of India.
#PIBFactCheck found almost all of its content to be fake.

Here’s a thread… pic.twitter.com/GjyJo9xHme

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 12, 2023

2. Fact-checks on videos of Samvaad Tv:

A #YouTube channel ‘Samvaad TV’ with over 10 lakh subscribers was found to be propagating #FakeNews about the Government of India and making false claims about the statements of the Union Ministers. @PIBFactCheck
found almost all of its content to be fake.

Here’s a thread👇 pic.twitter.com/MQxsMF7CeI

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 12, 2023

3. Fact-checks on videos of Sarokar Bharat:

A #YouTube channel ‘Sarokar Bharat’ with 21,100 subscribers and over 37 lakh views have been found to be propagating #FakeNews regarding the President of India, Prime Minister, and several other Union Ministers. pic.twitter.com/ynUuBkmm19

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 12, 2023

4. Fact-checks on videos of Nation 24:

A #YouTube channel ‘Nation 24’ with more than 25.4K subscribers and close to 44 lakh views has been found to be propagating #FakeNews about the President, Prime Minister, Supreme Court of India and the Election Commission of India@PIBFactCheck busts some of its claims🔽 pic.twitter.com/J9i3bBkqlw

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 12, 2023

5. Fact-checks on videos of Swarnim Bharat:

A YouTube channel ‘Swarnim Bharat’ with over 1,013,013 views has been found to be propagating #FakeNews about the Prime Minister, Union Ministers, Election Commission of India & Supreme Court of India. @PIBFactCheck found almost all of its content to be fake. Here’s a thread.. pic.twitter.com/tyNzsK7DbT

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 12, 2023

6. Fact-checks on videos of Samvaad Samachar:

YouTube channel ‘Samvaad Samachar’ with about 3.5 lakh subscribers & over 12 crore views has been found to be propagating #FakeNews about the President, Prime Minister, various Cabinet Ministers & Chief Justice of India.

In this thread #PIBFactCheck busts some of its claims🔽 pic.twitter.com/SGU0c6RcVB

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) January 12, 2023