New Delhi: The Union government on Tuesday blocked the YouTube channel of 4 PM News, which has about 7.3 million subscribers, Scroll reported.
Though it is not known what prompted the action, the channel’s editor-in-chief, Sanjay Sharma, termed the ban as part of a move to ‘crush a strong voice of democracy in the name of national security’.
Meanwhile, YouTube announced that the digital outlet’s page is ‘unavailable in this country because of an order from the government related to national security or public order’.
Sanjay Sharma added that the government should have communicated to the outlet via an email if it had any objection to any of the videos.
Claiming that he would have checked the video himself and removed it in the event of identifying ‘any mistake’, and asserted that ‘Modi is not the country’.
The journalist said that questioning the government is not a crime, saying ‘It is our right to raise our voice in democracy’.
He asserted that the outlet would continue ‘raise’ voice on its other channels including 4PM UP.
The channel carried posts criticizing the Centre following the Pahalgam terror attack, Newslaundry reported.
The Congress came down on the Centre for banning 4 PM News’ YouTube channel and action against satirist Madri Kakoti and Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore.
Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said despite a ‘big attack happened the media did not ask any questions’, because ‘Poor guys are all busy running the PMO peon’s WhatsApp agenda’.
The action against 4 PM News comes two days after the government banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels over spreading false and provocative content following Pahalgam massacre.