India Bans 16 Pakistani YouTube Channels Over Provocative Content

In a decisive move to counter Pakistan's provocative narratives, the Government of India on Monday announced the ban of 16 Pakistani YouTube channels, including prominent news outlets such as Dawn News, Samaa TV, GNN, and Geo News. The ban follows allegations that these platforms were involved in spreading inflammatory content, misleading narratives, and false information, particularly targeting India’s military and security agencies.

On the recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Government of India has banned the 16 Pakistani YouTube channels including Dawn News, Samaa TV, Ary News, Geo News for disseminating provocative and communally sensitive content, false and misleading narratives and… pic.twitter.com/AusR1fCkvN

— ANI (@ANI) April 28, 2025

The action is part of India’s broader strategy to combat the dissemination of harmful and communally sensitive material that seeks to undermine the nation’s security and sovereignty. In addition to the YouTube channel ban, the Indian government has formally addressed the BBC, condemning its continued use of the term “militants” to describe terrorists in the region, a designation that New Delhi argues undermines the gravity of terrorism-related violence.

This latest round of diplomatic actions comes just days after the deadly terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 16 civilians. The attack, which has been attributed to cross-border elements, has prompted India to take a series of retaliatory steps against Pakistan. On April 23, India downgraded its diplomatic ties with Pakistan, expelling Pakistani military attaches, suspending the Indus Water Treaty — a pact that has governed water-sharing between the two nations for over six decades — and closing the Attari land-transit post, a key border point between the two countries.

In a briefing to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri emphasized that the links between the Pahalgam attack and Pakistan were "clearly brought out," paving the way for the latest diplomatic measures. These actions have effectively severed many of the remaining diplomatic channels between India and Pakistan, pushing bilateral relations to a new nadir.