"There is an attempt to give communal colour to news and that is a problem. Ultimately it brings a bad name to the country," said the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on 2 September – and it's hard to disagree with these words.
Especially when this came up while hearing a petition regarding vilification of the Tablighi Jamaat by media houses in connection with the coronavirus pandemic, given the way this was used to spread anti-Muslim bigotry.
Except the court was not, as you might expect, calling out TV channels for their communal coverage of the issue, but instead complaining about the behaviour of 'web portals'.
"If you go to YouTube, so much is shown in one minute. You can see how much fake news there is. Web portals are not governed by anything," the court said, adding to its complaints that social media platforms like "Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube" are not accountable and "only worry about powerful men and not judges, institutions or common man".