Fact Check: Naidu didn’t threaten to resign, Tomar has not resigned, speaker was not assaulted

Over the past couple of months, the government has cracked down heavily on fake news. Many channels have been banned for spreading fake news and threatening national security

New Delhi, Jan 14: Over the past couple of months, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry (I&B) has either banned or warned several channels especially on the internet of posting fake stories on the Indian government.

In recent times one channel Nation 24 has peddled fake news about the government in a big way. Last week there was a news in circulation which claimed that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had resigned. The news turned out to be completely fake.

Now the channel has claimed that the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Om Birla was assaulted in Parliament. PIB Fact Check took to twitter and said, ' one video the channel Nation 24 claimed that the Hon'ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha was physically assaulted in Parliament. This claim is fake.'

In another claim the channel said that the Union Agriculture Minister, Narendra S Tomar has resigned as minister. Yet again PIB Fact Check called out the claim and said that it was fake.

Further the channel said in another video that during his tenure, Venkaiah Naidu had threatened to resign. This claim too is utterly false, the PIB Fact check.

Earlier this week, a YouTube channel Samvad TV with over 10 lakh subscribers were found to be propagating fake news about the government of India and making false claims about the statements of Union Ministers. The PIB Fact Check all of its contents are fake.

The I&B Ministry while continuing its crackdown on social media channels for spreading fake news banned six YoTube channels. The six channels had nearly 20 lakh subscribers and their videos had been watched over 51 more times, the government said.

Nation TV, Sarokar Bharat, Nation 24, Samvad Samachar, Swarnim Bharat and Sambad TV were the channels that were banned.

"I&B ministry cracks down on fake news peddling YouTube Channels. Busted channels are part of the fake news economy. The channels use fake, clickbait and sensational thumbnails and images of television news anchors of TV Channels to mislead," the I&B ministry said in a statement.

In December, the government had banned 104 YouTube channels, 45 videos, three Instagram accounts, four Facebook accounts, five Twitter handles and six websites for threatening national security and spreading fake news.