On 11 June 2024, two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office for his third consecutive term, TheJuiceMedia posted a notice from YouTube saying it had taken down a video called ‘Honest Government Ad | India’.

TheJuiceMedia is an Australia-based YouTube channel, in its words, “covering Government shitfuckery and the most pressing issues of our time”. The video in question is an excerpt from a longer video lampooning the state of democracy in 14 countries.

The notice said that India’s ministry of home affairs had asked for the video to be blocked for violating the following laws:

- section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860: “Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot”

- section 504, IPC: “Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace”

- section 505, IPC: “Statements conducing to public mischief”

- section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act, 1971: Insults to Indian National Flag and Constitution of India.

On 22 June, thejuicemedia posted on X that both versions of the video had now been blocked in India.

It is not only foreign media that have faced the ire of the Modi government.

On 4 April 2024, Samar Raj, the editor of Bolta Hindustan, a popular Hindi news website, received an email from YouTube, warning him that his channel would be blocked on orders from the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB).

Raj assumed the email was a scam and ignored it. The channel was blocked 12 hours later.

In the email, YouTube wrote that they had received a notice issued under section 15(2) of the Information Technology Rules 2021and section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2000.

Bolta Hindustan’s YouTube channel was restored 4 days later, on the 8 of May 2024.

Videos On Elections Targeted. Raj isn’t the only journalist who has said that the Indian government has censored their work.





Sources - https://article-14.com/post/how-social-media-platforms-work-hand-in-hand-with-the-modi-govt-to-censor-news-videos-online-66cb996114b02