How dubious YouTube ‘news’ channels are shaping India’s election

In YouTube’s largest market, self-proclaimed news channels are booming, gaining millions of viewers peddling falsehoods aimed at helping Prime Minister Modi’s campaign.

Mumbai, India – On one channel, a male journalist chastises an Indian Muslim man sympathetic with Palestinians, asking him: “Did you stand with Hindus when they suffered atrocities in Pakistan and Afghanistan?”

On another channel, a journalist gleefully asks a Muslim resident of the city of Ayodhya whether Muslims were happy that a Ram temple had come up on the site of a centuries-old mosque demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob.

A female anchor on yet another channel alleges that a conspiracy is afoot to make India’s southern state of Kerala an ‘Islamic State’, with the hub of this conspiracy being Wayanad, the parliamentary constituency of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, quoting no evidence to substantiate her allegation.

India, with over 460 million users, is YouTube’s largest market, with four out of five internet users in India consuming its content. Increasingly, more and more Indians are getting their news from YouTube.

What is on offer, though, is not always news. Some of the most popular YouTube news channels in India are increasingly offering a smattering of disinformation and Islamophobia, often cheerleading Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while targeting its critics and opposition leaders.

While partisan YouTube influencers making political content in favour of either side of the political divide is a common phenomenon, what makes these channels unique is that they claim to be ‘news’ channels, ostensibly presenting fact-based reportage.

From mocking and attacking Modi’s rival politicians to