NEW DELHI, Jan 21: The centre has ordered Twitter and YouTube for blocking multiple YouTube videos of the first episode of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the over 50 tweets containing their web links, official sources said.
The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued the orders using the emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2021. Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions, said the sources. Many tweets and YouTube videos of the documentary no longer appear on the microblogging and video-sharing websites.
The documentary, produced by the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster, had been earlier termed by the Ministry of External Affairs as a “propaganda piece” that lacked objectivity and reflected colonial mindset. “While it was not made available in India by the BBC, some YouTube channels had uploaded it to promote an anti-India agenda,” a government official said.
It is learnt that YouTube has also been instructed to block the video if it is uploaded on its platform again. Twitter has also been told to identify and block the tweets containing the link to the video on other platforms.
Sources said senior officials of multiple Ministries, including the MEA, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the I&B Ministry, earlier examined the documentary and found it to be “an attempt to cast aspersions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court of India, sow divisions among various Indian communities, and make unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign governments in India”.
“The documentary was accordingly found to be undermining sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact India’s friendly relations with foreign States as also public order within the country,” said the official.
The ministry told Twitter to remove over 50 tweets on the documentary by Britain’s national broadcaster, the people said. Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien was among some opposition leaders whose tweet on the documentary was removed by Twitter. “Censorship. Twitter has taken down my tweet of the BBC documentary. It received lakhs of views. The one-hour BBC documentary exposes how PM hates minorities,” Mr O’Brien alleged.
(Manas Dasgupta)
