India blocks over 16 Pakistani YouTube accounts

India on Monday banned multiple Pakistan-based YouTube accounts following the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, which has further escalated tensions between the two countries.

The banned channels include Pakistani news channels such as Samaa TV, Bol News, Geo News, Dawn News, and GNN. Some individual YouTube accounts such as Muneeb Farooq and Arzoo Kazmi have also been banned.

India also banned the YouTube account of Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar.

While the landing pages of these channels may currently appear on YouTube, clicking the channel button displays the following message:

“This content is currently unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order. For more details about government removal requests, please visit the Google Transparency Report (transparencyreport.google.com).”

It appears that the government has for now blocked YouTube channels of Pakistani entities and not their official websites. If India chooses to do so, it will issue a directive to the local ISPs.

It may be recalled that the Indian government had imposed a ban on several Chinese apps including TikTok citing concerns about data security and privacy following the Galwan Valley border clash in 2020.

Moreover, the government is also tracking social media posts on the coverage of the terror attack in Kashmir.

The External Publicity and Public Diplomacy (XPD) Division of the Ministry of External Affairs has conveyed “the country's strong sentiments to Jackie Martin (India Head, BBC) regarding their reporting on the terror attack.” The division said a formal letter was written to the BBC on terming terrorists as “militants.”

Earlier, the Indian government directed all media channels in the country to refrain from showing live coverage of defence operations and movement of security forces.

“In the interest of national security, all media platforms, news agencies, and social media users are advised to exercise utmost responsibility and adhere strictly to existing laws and regulations while reporting on matters concerning defence and other security related operations,” it said in a circular.