In December 2022, a caravan Dozens of Hindu nationalist YouTube channels broadcasting extremist content were found, with hundreds of millions of viewers. Senior BJP leaders were interviewed on channels that “quickly surpassed mainstream news channels in terms of influence”.
Amnesty’s Patel says this proliferation is partly due to the growth of platforms and the number of people using them now, “and partly because hate speech is condoned. If you make heroes of people who abuse minorities and are violent , and you’ll encourage more people to follow this path.”
Some nationalist and sectarian YouTubers have built large followings, including Vikas Pathak, whose Hindustani Bhau channel had more than 800,000 followers before it was suspended in 2020 after he Posted a video threatening to sexually assault a YouTuber from Pakistan. A few days after he was suspended, he managed to start another channel, which has 83,000 subscribers. He also has 2.2 million followers on Instagram.
Prem Krishnavanshi is a YouTuber from Uttar Pradesh with over 87,000 subscribers who has made his career making popular songs targeting supporters of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. The lyrics of one of Krishnavanshi’s 2019 songs roughly translate to: “You’re not human, you’re butchers. Enough Hindu-Muslim brotherhood.”
“An anti-Muslim online hate industry is booming, and companies are reaping the benefits,” caravan Report.
YouTube spokesman Malone said the company removed more than 156,000 videos in the third quarter of 2022 that violated its hate speech policy.
“In addition to removing harmful content, we leverage our recommendation system and monetization tools to promote a healthy ecosystem,” the statement read. “YouTube has always had clear Community Guidelines outlining what is allowed on the platform, and we remove flagged videos and comments that violate our policies. These policies are global, which means we apply them consistently to content on the platform. All creators, regardless of their background, political views, affiliation or affiliation.”
Malon also said creators could be punished for abuse or violence that occurs off their platforms.
As of February 28, Manesar’s YouTube channel was still active. Since Khan’s death, he’s added about 7,000 subscribers.
India is YouTube’s largest market, with 467 million users — nearly double the number in the United States.
Prateek Waghre, policy director at the digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation, said YouTube’s recommendation algorithm may be partly to blame for the spread of such sectarian content. “YouTube isn’t particularly open about its recommendation system,” he said. “But the algorithm usually prioritizes engagement. If you watch a certain type of content, it looks for similar types of content.”
Detecting hate speech in India is complicated, Waghre said, and people often switch between languages. But, he said, social media companies were often slow to respond when alerted to potentially dangerous content. “Even inaction is an action,” he said. “They tend not to act until it becomes a major PR crisis. Sadly, it’s a consistent act across platforms. These companies need to think about how they view their own neutrality.”
But Waghre also said he suspects social media companies are nervous about going after nationalist figures in case the backlash threatens their business interests. “If you take action against a popular right-wing figure, there’s a good chance you’ll be targeted in one way or another,” he said.
More violence is inevitable as hate speech continues to spread online and offline, Patel said. “I’m 53 years old,” he said. “I haven’t seen tensions in this country this high all the time.”
