François Gautier, a French journalist based in India who has worked for the Indian Express and Pioneer, had his YouTube channel removed for violating the platform’s community guidelines, in what is seen as a broader issue of biased censorship of social media by big tech companies.
Gauthier’s channel was reportedly removed without detailed explanation, leading to accusations that YouTube is applying its rules arbitrarily. Critics argue that YouTube’s guidelines unfairly target content that criticizes certain ideologies while allowing the spread of other controversial content, such as Islamic propaganda, anti-Semitism and anti-Hindu rhetoric.
my YouTube This channel has been removed for violating our community guidelines. What guidelines? Are they allowing Islamic propaganda, anti-Semitism and anti-Hindu slurs, but cracking down on anyone who defends Hindus or speaks out about Islamic terrorism? How wrong…
— François Gautier (@fgautier26) August 25, 2024
Gautier, who has been vocal on a range of contentious issues including Hindu views and Islamic extremism, is no stranger to controversy on social media. In March 2021, Twitter suspended Gautier’s account (@fgautier26) for criticising environmental activist Greta Thunberg and her allies Disha Ravi. The suspension came after Gautier commented on Thunberg’s leaked “toolkit” and its implications for India, including alleged Khalistan ties to India.
The removal of Gauthier’s YouTube channel has sparked a wave of criticism from social media users, who say the platform’s actions are part of a pattern of censoring voices that oppose left-wing and far-left ideologies. Users have expressed outrage and called for Gauthier’s channel to be reinstated, highlighting broader concerns about the uneven application of social media policies.
YouTube’s biased actions against pro-Hindu/pro-India voices
In September 2023, YouTuber Vinod Kumar faced a similar situation, when his channel “String Reveals” was arbitrarily banned on the platform without any prior warning or caveat due to severe or repeated violations of the community guidelines. The String team revealed the action under their X handle, sharing an email from YouTube explaining that the removal of the channel was “to protect other users.”
String channel has been deleted!
No strikes or violations, but immediate deletion 🤷♂️@TeamYouTube YouTube
Please explain whose boots you licked to do this to me.
If I don’t get my channel back up and running soon, you’ll see how far I’ll go.
Be careful! YouTube is not the only platform where we can… pic.twitter.com/GCF3Fqcz2K
— String (@StringReveals) September 20, 2023
His content mainly focused on promoting Hindu culture and temples. The removal came shortly after String released a podcast about film director Vivek Agnihotri and the “Toolkit Gang,” who allegedly tried to sabotage India’s vaccine project.
Kumar then took legal action and filed a petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court seeking compensation of Rs 2 crore and restoration of his account.
Google has arbitrarily suspended our YouTube account. All String channels have been terminated. @string A petition was filed in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Follow String filed a writ petition seeking restoration of his YouTube channel. Further, the High Court… pic.twitter.com/DmveOCtdNq
— String (@StringReveals) March 27, 2024
This isn’t the first time YouTube has taken action against String: in 2021, it removed a video exposing the Greta Thunberg toolkit for harassment and bullying.
In June 2024, Rohan Dua, a journalist at The New Indian, suggested that the platform was promoting anti-Modi sentiment. He claimed that recordings of conversations between 17 YouTube India employees described how they shadowbanned neutral reporting while promoting anti-Modi content. Dua alleged that the conspiracy affected press freedom and said that among those involved in manipulating the algorithm were 17 employees, including five women and 12 men from different states in India. He believed that this constituted a “criminal conspiracy under Sections 127A, 120B and 171B/R of the Indian Penal Code for the offence of bribery.”
Attention | I’ve heard that recordings of 17 people have been submitted to Indian intelligence agencies @YouTube India Employees in India have explicitly written and spoken instructions on how to shadowban neutral reporting and promote anti-neutral reporting. @NarendraModi garbage.
That is a criminal act…
— Rohan Dua (@rohanduaT02) June 2, 2024
Ajeet Bharti reported on X that YouTube had demonetized 35 of his videos in the past 45 days and regemonetized 32 of them after they were challenged. Despite these demonetizations, the delays resulted in zero revenue during the peak election period. “During the peak election period, they were wrong 32 out of 35 times,” Bharti noted.
I gave up on tagging @YouTube India We crave explanations, but there are always moments when the collective ability to calm us disappears.
This time, maybe criticising Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi did not go down well with them, so they initially…
— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) May 15, 2024
Aaj Ki Taza Khabar (AKTK), a YouTuber with 1.44 million subscribers, accused YouTube India of shadowbanning and demonetizing his content whenever he mentions left-leaning figures like Ravish Kumar, Dhruv Rathi, and Rajdeep Sardesai. On August 21, 2024, AKTK shared a video on his X account showing how YouTube’s algorithm is allegedly restricting monetization based on these names. He revealed that a video titled “Operation ‘Save Mamata’ by Andh Namazi Gang” was fully demonetized, but when he changed the title to include the names of “Ravish-Dhruv-Rajdeep,” the video was immediately demonetized and had ad suitability restrictions applied. When he changed it back to the original title, full monetization was restored.
Mentioning the names of Ravish, Rathee and Rajdeep Sardesai in the title of your video may result in your video being demonetised.
Here is the evidencetranslation: Translator @YouTube India Is this how your algorithm works?
It’s really shocking how much Big Tech is controlling the narrative. translation: Follow pic.twitter.com/qtmqv9NpX5
— AKTK (@AKTKbasics) August 21, 2024
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