Video streaming giant YouTube has removed two Punjabi songs related to the ongoing farmers’ protests, one of which includes a music video by a famous Punjabi singer Kanwar Grewal titled ‘Aliaan’.
The online streaming platform has removed the videos depicting the protest in the national capital against the three farm bills.
Upon clicking on the song ‘Ailaan’, which garnered over 60 lakh views at the time of writing this article, a notification pops up on the screen, stating, “This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government”.
Similarly, Himmat Sandhu’s ‘Asi Vaddange’, which was released in November 2020 and had over 13 million views was also removed citing the same reason.
A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement to Medianama, “We comply with valid legal requests from authorities wherever possible, consistent with our longstanding policy and act quickly to remove identified content.”
However, the fans of these singers posted the same music video from different video channels and those links are still accessible and have not been blocked yet.
Even though several Punjabi celebrities have come in support of the protesting farmers in the National Capital Region, the government has strengthened its stance on the content uploaded on social media platforms.
What Does YouTube Policy Say About This?
According to Google Transparency report, the government can contact any Google-based platform, such as YouTube, Play Store or Chrome, asking them to remove content citing various reasons, which includes defamation, national security, privacy, and others.
“Government bodies may claim that content violates a local law, and include court orders that are often not directed at Google with their requests. Both types of requests are counted in this report. We also include government requests to review content to determine if it violates our own product community guidelines and content policies,” read a statement on Google Transparency Report official website.
Twitter Vs Government
This move comes amid a tussle between Twitter and the Indian government where the social media platform was asked to remove 1,400 accounts which were allegedly ‘Pak backed’ and had ‘Khalistani’ links.
Following which, Twitter was served with a legal notice for non-compliance with the government rules. Now, Twitter has reportedly suspended many accounts, as requested by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
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