YouTube takedowns
It’s a worrying sign that India has again topped the global list of YouTube video takedowns. Of the worldwide total of 9.4 million videos removed by the Google-owned company between October and December 2024, around 30 per cent were from India. It’s obvious that the misuse of this popular video-sharing and social media platform continues unabated in the country. YouTube’s community guidelines disallow content pertaining particularly to pornography, incitement to violence, harassment or cyberbullying, hate speech and misinformation. Notably, over 96 per cent of the policy-violating videos globally were first flagged by the platform’s automated content moderation tools — without any human intervention.
A big challenge for YouTube is to take down content before it starts getting a sizeable number of views. Its generally robust self-regulatory mechanism came under a cloud recently when YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia’s comments on an online show, India’s Got Latent, triggered a nationwide outrage as well as a string of FIRs. The episode and clips in question were removed after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stepped in. However, the Supreme Court’s directions to the Centre to frame guidelines for regulating social media content have raised the spectre of government interference in the working of online platforms, besides a possibly detrimental effect on free speech.
The takedowns should prompt the government and other stakeholders to delve deep into various cases of misinformation and hate speech. It is disconcerting that the temptation to invest in dubious endeavours that serve to heighten communal tensions or foment hatred is getting stronger. The World Economic Forum has cautioned that misinformation and disinformation pose a persistent threat to societal cohesion and governance. India has been identified as a leading at-risk nation. Close collaboration between the government and platforms such as YouTube can help in deterring miscreants from posting harmful or objectionable content. A sustained awareness campaign is a must to warn users of the perils of fake news and prejudiced views.
