YouTube failed to act on hate speech and misinformation violations by far-right channel Sudarshan News, and instead shared ad revenue with the channel, reveals a report shared exclusively with Decode.
The report - a joint effort by Dalit Solidarity Forum, Indian American Muslim Council, India Civil Watch International, Hindus for Human Rights, and Tech Justice Law Project - highlights 26 videos published by Sudarshan News, that were reported for violating YouTube's policies on hate speech, misinformation and monetisation, leading up to and during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Notably, 17 of these videos were published during the polling phases.
The videos propagated conspiracy theories and dehumanising content against Muslims, while pushing misinformation and debunked claims against the Indian National Congress and other opposition leaders. Despite these violations, none of the videos faced any actions and continued to thrive on YouTube, accumulating a total of 3.5 million views by the time the report was published.
Business Of Hate
Launched in 2005, Sudarshan News, a privately owned channel, is known for its pro-Hindutva nationalist stance, and has been pulled up for spreading misinformation, hate speech and conspiracy theories with strong Islamophobic undertones and dog-whistling. The channel currently has 1.83 million subscribers.
Its founder, chairman and editor-in-chief, Suresh Chahvanke, is known for his outspoken and aggressive style, and for frequently using his platform to promote ‘Hindu interests’ at the expense of minority groups, especially Muslims. His public statements have drawn criticism for inciting communal tension and spreading hate speech, on which he faces several legal cases.
The Sudarshan News YouTube channel features 160000 published videos, has 1.65 million subscribers, and has received over 301 million views. On average, per month, the channel posts about 148 videos and receives 2.7 million views.
Islamophobia and Anti-Opposition Misinfo During Elections
The 17 videos flagged by the report, that were published during the elections, furthered popular Islamophobic conspiracy theories like "Love Jihad', along with newer ones like "Vote Jihad" and "Namaz Kurbani". "Love Jihad" connects misogynistic crimes committed by Muslim men on Hindu women across the country, and falsely purports its as an organised attempt by Muslims to dominate Hindus.
Between April 20 and April 29, 2024, the channel published four different videos on "Love Jihad", containing blatant elements of hate and animosity targeting Muslims. The report described the videos as following:
Sudarshan’s coverage of these events featured hateful and abusive language against Muslims. Panellists on the show referred to all Muslims as “Jihadis” and the described the entire area of Jahangirpuri as a “mini-Pakistan”—a derogatory term for Muslim ghettos—where people see the “nanga-naach [an extremely lewd phrase, literally translating to “naked dance,” for “shamelessness”] of Jihadis.” Further Sudarshan programming on these murders incited Hindu viewers to rise up against “these Muslim Jihadi men” who are out after their “Hindu daughters.”
The channel also propagated the theory of "Vote Jihad" to vilify Muslim voter participation. The term was first used by Samajwadi Party leader Maria Alam in a speech early May, to encourage Muslims to vote out Modi. The term was then used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in Gujarat, to target Congress by stating that the latter was asking Muslims to engage in "Vote Jihad".
The report highlights how Sudarshan News quickly picked up the term and amplified it in their channel while "adding more misinformation, derogatory language, and hate speech against Muslims".
"The thumbnail of a YouTube video, aired on May 2, depicts four Muslim women in veils, and one Hindu woman, wearing a saree, with the title, “Let's attack ‘Vote Jihad.’” It contains further hateful images on this theme depicting the ink stain indicating a vote, in the form of a sword with a woman in a burqa.
The report highlights another programme aired on April 27, where the channels propagates the theory of "Namaz Kurbani", or "sacrifice of prayers". During the programme, the anchor suggests that "Muslims have turned up for voting not because of their faith in democracy but because of their hatred for Modi."
Other videos by the channels that were flagged in the report include misinformation on the Congress manifesto, and dehumanising portrayal of Muslim leader Asaduddin Owaisi.
Following Modi's misleading statements on the Congress manifesto, specifically distorting a statement by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the channel further amplified this rhetoric in an hour-long broadcast on April 22, which included a monologue voice-over saying, "Congress who calls Hinduism a malaria, who maintains silence over attacks on Hindus… and who hide behind the Muslim appeasement and pose as seasonal Hindu why they are angry over the analysis (by Modi) of their own manifesto.”
Another video published on April 25 distorts a statement on inheritance tax by former chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda to state that the "Congress has always wanted to seize the personal wealth of Indians and redistribute it among Muslims".
The report also flags several videos uploaded by Sudarshan News on All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi, making dehumanising depictions, and misrepresenting his statements.
A video uploaded on April 13 by the channel on YouTube shows Owaisi with "devilish features including horns, protruding teeth, blood dripping from mouth and a snake-like tongue".
The caption says, “die or be killed— Owaisi, openly threatening the Qafirs (infidels).” Sudarshan News is deliberately misquoting an Owaisi statement about the death threats he was getting on social media. At the time he had said, “If you want to kill me, kill me. My life span was written when I was in my mother's womb. I'll keep living as a warrior.”
The report also flagged nine other videos that were shared by the channel before the elections.
This includes a multi-part video series published by the channel in September 2020 using the narrative "UPSC Jihad", where it is falsely claimed that Muslims are trying to infiltrate the Indian bureaucracy using "funds from terror-linked organisations abroad”. These claims were debunked by BOOM.
The report further highlights how the flagged videos were further shared in far-right Telegram channels like Hindustani Beast, and काफिर कन्या, with highly inflammatory and inciteful messages.
Funding Hate Content
The report further alleges that YouTube earns through revenues on ads placed on the videos shared by Sudarshan News, and provides considerable funding to the channel through sharing of such revenue.
Decode had earlier reported on how the platform "creates layers of opacity around YouTube ads, making it nearly impossible to find harmful ads, and track the source of funds."
The report uses vidIQ, a YouTube anayltics tool, to find that the channel is "likely to be earning between $7,600 and $22,900 per month through its YouTube channel".
The researchers working on the report observed advertisements placed by brands like Make My Trip, Goibibo and Zomato, along with ads by the BJP, while viewing the flagged videos.
What Does YouTube's Policies State?
The report reviewed the platform's policies on hate speech and misinformation and found that the videos reported to be violative of such policies.
The platform's hate speech policy defines hate speech as content that incites "hatred or violence against groups based on protected attributes such as age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran status", along with content that "dehumanise members of these groups; characterising them as inherently inferior or ill". It claims that such content shall be removed from the platform.
However, the videos flagged by the report containing content that clearly targeted Muslims, and dehumanised Muslim leaders, faced no visible action, despite being reported.
Furthermore, highlighting the blatant use of misinformation to target opposition parties and leaders, the report also points out that the videos by Sudarshan News violated YouTube's election misinformation policy which claims to remove "misleading or deceptive content with serious risk of egregious real-world harm like content containing hacked information which may interfere with democratic processes, false claims that could materially discourage voting, or content with false claims related to candidate eligibility".
This includes propagation of misleading claims on the Congress manifesto, which had been debunked by BOOM, and other fact-checkers.
YouTube's monetisation policy claims to "set an even higher bar for creators" to be able to earn review through YouTube Partner Programme. "Given that several posts on Sudarshan’s YouTube channel violate the platform’s community guidelines, the channel is, by extension, also violating the platform’s monetisation policy," the report ads.
A YouTube spokesperson told Decode, "YouTube has well established community guidelines that govern what content is allowed including policies prohibiting hate speech and election misinformation. All our policies are applied consistently across the platform, regardless of the creator, their background, political viewpoint, position or affiliation.”
Following our coverage of the report, a video published by Sudarshan News on April 29, 2024, that communalised a case of rape against a woman in Mumbai, was taken down by YouTube for violating the platform's policy on "Harassment & cyberbullying".
Furthermore, YouTube also took action to block ads from several videos on the Sudarshan News channel for violating the platform's advertiser-friendly guidelines.
View the full report here.
