Censorship

A similar incident surfaced in the public domain a few days after the Bolta Hindustan received their email. National Dastak, a YouTube news channel, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that they had received a similar notice. In its YouTube bio, the channel states that it seeks to represent the voices of marginalised communities, including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women, minorities, farmers and labourers. The email received by National Dastak and the provisions cited are identical to the email received by Bolta Hindustan.

The outlet stated in its X post in Hindi: “The government wants to stop National Dastak. YouTube sent a notice on April 3. Article 19 has also received a notice. All this is happening in the code of conduct. Lakhs of newspapers and TV news channels are running, yet they are afraid of the National Dastak of the Bahujan community.”

However, the channel has not been blocked and is still running as of now. Shambhu Kumar Singh from National Dastak told Medianama that if the channel was removed he would appeal through a legal route. It’s also worth noting that Article 19, another online news platform, has received a notice regarding its Facebook account, and not its YouTube channel. With elections around the corner, the political environment is getting charged up, and YouTube is at the heart of political commentary on the Internet. With traditional television channels wary of being critical of the government, YouTube has emerged as a battleground for politics.