After taking down more than 1,000 accounts on Twitter, the government has cracked its whip on YouTube for music videos related to the ongoing farmer protests.
As such, the Google-owned video platform blocked Kanwar Grewal’s, famous Punjabi singer, music video – Ailaan, which had raked in over 60 lakh views. A notification by YouTube said that this content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government.
“We comply with valid legal requests from authorities wherever possible, consistent with our longstanding policy and act quickly to remove identified content,” the platform’s official statement said.
Reports highlight that the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has sent three notices to Twitter, the latest one asking the microblogging platform to block 1,178 accounts believed to be linked to the Khalistan sympathizers, and those backed by Pakistan. And in another notice, the MeitY had asked Twitter to block 257 accounts using the #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide hashtag amid the farmers’ protest, under Section 69A of the IT Act.
Several Punjabi celebrities and singers have come out in support of the farmers, as the government toughens its stand on malicious and inflammatory accounts, posts and videos. International personals, from teenaged climate activist Greta Thunberg to popstar Rihanna and Lilly Singh, to Mia Khalifa have voiced their support and concerns for the farmers protest in India. Rihanna had created quite a storm in India when she shared a message about the farmers protest with a news update and captioned the post asking her fans and followers using the trending #FarmersProtest hashtag. “Why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest”.
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And thanks to Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, and a 30-second video ad during the Super Bowl, the farmers protest has gained global solidarity.
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India’s farmer protests made it to the Super Bowl – American National Football League, which is watched by millions of Americans. The sporting event became the platform for millions of people to learn about the farmers protest through a 30-second video with theme, “No Farmers, No Food, No Future”. This has now gone viral over the social media. It was supported by distressing visuals of farmers who have been staging a sit-in for over two months now, in Delhi.
According to various reports, this 30-second video was crowdfunded by the Sikh diaspora living in Fresno County. The team received massive financial support from the Indian communities in the United States, with excess funds having been donated to “Seva for Everyone”, a non-for-profit organization.
