The brutal beheading of Hindu tailor Kanhaiya Lal by two Muslim perpetrators, Mohammed Riyaz Akhtar and Mohammed Gaus, has shaken the conscience of the nation. While the global media gave the murder of Samuel Patty the attention it deserved, names like Kanhaiya Lal are often brushed under the rug with media and social media giants actively suppressing information on the Islamist killing and also shield those who hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community, like AltNews co-founder Mohammad Zubair.
On the 28th of June 2022, OpIndia published a report headlined “Mohammed Zubair moves to Delhi High Court against remand order, Police takes him to Bengaluru to recover his laptop, hard disk”. In the report, OpIndia had embedded a YouTube video from TimesNow that showed visuals of the police escorting Mohammad Zubair to his Bengaluru residence in an attempt to recover the laptop used by him.
According to the reports, Zubair earlier had refused to hand over his electronic devices and had formatted them. The Police said that despite repeatedly asking for the devices, Zubair had refused to hand his devices over to the Police.
On the 1st of July 2022, Twitter user @BeffitingFacts posted a screenshot that showed that the TimesNow video that OpIndia had embedded in its report had gone missing. The notice read that the video had been taken down for violating community standards.
Youtube removed video of Times Now for showing house of Altnews co founder Zubair Mohammed. Since when live reporting of crime accused became violation of privacy? @YouTube pic.twitter.com/Hsxr1Ly5yd
— Facts (@BefittingFacts) July 1, 2022
There were several people who reacted questioning YouTube India wondering why this video had been taken down and was it an attempt to shield Zubair.
@YouTubeIndia why you’re so biased. You removed a video because zubair is arrested. When your hypocrisy will finally end ?
— Vijday 🇮🇳 (@vijaygan2014) July 1, 2022
The video by TimesNow was a live coverage video of the police taking Zubair to his residence. It is quite possible that YouTube removed the video because the video was mass reported by supporters of Zubair claiming that it breached his privacy. In the visuals of the live reporting, Zubair was seen being escorted inside his residence with the visuals of his building visible clearly.
When OpIndia went through the guidelines of YouTube, the most likely guideline used to report and take down the TimesNow video could have been their privacy policy.
The YouTube privacy guidelines says:
For content to be considered for removal, an individual must be uniquely identifiable and the complaint we received from that individual, or their legal representative, must uniquely identify the individual by a combination of image, voice, full name, government identification number, bank account number, contact information (e.g. home address, email address), or other uniquely identifiable information. We also take into account public interest, newsworthiness, consent, and whether the information is otherwise publicly available when determining if content should be removed for a privacy violation. YouTube reserves the right to make the final determination of whether a violation of its privacy guidelines has occurred.
YouTube says that if they receive a complaint regarding privacy, they give the user 48 hours to amend and if not amended, they proceed to take the video down.
But here is a catch. They also say that complaints can’t be raised on behalf of third parties unless the person whose privacy is being violated is incapacitated. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the privacy complaint, that YouTube took cognisance of, was raised by some family member or colleague of Zubair.
The TimesNow video, however, was not breaching his privacy. It was an on-ground report about an accused who was being questioned by the police while being escorted to his residence.
The question that is now being asked is would YouTube act in the same manner had some other criminal been escorted to his residence by the police and the media had reported the development similarly.
The intentions of YouTube have come under question with people asking if YouTube acted against this video of TimesNow because they want to shield information being decimated in the investigation against Mohammad Zubair who had insulted Hindu Gods and Goddesses. It is pertinent to note that YouTube has hardly acted against several threats issued to Nupur Sharma by the very people who were unleashed by Zubair’s dog-whistling, however, it seems more than happy to take down videos where the investigation against Zubair is being reported.
YouTube’s action against a video that showed protests after Kanhaiya Lal’s brutal beheading
When it was pointed out that YouTube took down the TimesNow video showing Zubair being taken to his Bengaluru residence by the police, OpIndia noticed that some other videos from Republic TV had also been taken down by YouTube for violating community standards.
One of the videos removed by YouTube showed the massive protests against the murder of Kanhaiya Lal by two Islamists. In the tweet by Republic TV, a short video is added along with a YouTube link for the full video.
#BREAKING | Massive protests in Udaipur over Kanhaiya Lal's brutal murder; groups demand death sentence over killing
— Republic (@republic) June 30, 2022
Tune in here – https://t.co/ueRaDjKRcP… pic.twitter.com/WT7kBWrL57
However, when one clicks on the YouTube link, it shows that the video is not available.
In this case, we could not confirm if the video was taken down by YouTube or Republic TV themselves since the notice says the video is not available anymore. However, in another case, it was clear that it was taken down by YouTube.
In another tweet, Republic had posted a YouTube link about Kanhaiya Lal’s family demanding justice.
#UdaipurBeheading | Kanhaiya's family demands justice; thousands gather to pay respects at funeral procession in Udaipur. Tune in to watch here – https://t.co/DL39i49Mlk pic.twitter.com/xr57IgYIpG
— Republic (@republic) June 29, 2022
When one clicks on the YouTube link, it says that the video was removed due to violation of community standards.
The family of Kanhaiya Lal, obviously, was extremely agitated while talking about the murder. In some instances, some family members also demanded that the perpetrators be killed exactly the way Kanhaiya Lal was murdered by them.
It was also said in one of the videos that CM Ashok Gehlot was a “slave of Muslims”.
While we don’t know exactly what was said in this particular video, it is entirely possible that it was taken down by YouTube after mass reporting by Islamists and Leftists for “hate speech”. It is interesting that while Islamists beheaded Kanhaiya Lal, his family cannot even express their anguish without YouTube curtailing their voice probably for hate speech.
In the hate speech policy of YouTube, they mention that any “targeting” based on religion is a reason for videos being taken down.
In this case, while YouTube hardly acts against insults to Hindus, it seems to have removed a video where the family of a murdered Hindu man were expressing their anguish.
How Western media shut their eyes to the brutal murder of Kanhaiya Lal
While fears are now being expressed about YouTube suppressing news about the Kanhaiya Lal murder and Zubair being arrested, the western media has also actively suppressed news about the Islamist brutality.
Showcasing again the crooks of the selective media reporting, one of the Asian News International (ANI) editors revealed on Wednesday that many of the western media outlets had chosen not to report about the brutal killing of a Hindu tailor named Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan’s Udaipur. Western media outlets, which work as the reflection of leftist, liberal understanding were given 5 detailed video stories by ANI on the Udaipur murder, but only a handful of them had reported the gruesome murder.
Elaborating the fact, ANI editor Ishaan Prakash on June 30 tweeted that ANI had globally shared 5 detailed video stories on Kanhaiya’s murder through Thomson Reuters, the largest news agency in the world. He stated that the vast majority of the international media outlets had ignored the story. “ANI has pushed out 5 detailed video stories on the Udaipur murder through our partner Thomson Reuters. A handful of western outlets may have reported on it, the vast majority have ignored it. The stories are in their newsrooms, they ignore it”, he tweeted on Wednesday.
The handful of western media outlets who reported the incident as mentioned by Prakash include the BBC, Waco Tribune-Herald, The Washington Post, and the Toronto Sun. However, while the BBC highlighted the Hindu nationalists staging violent protests and the visible tensions between the ‘majority Hindus and minority Muslims’, it selectively failed to report the names of the Islamist murderers (Riaz Mohammed and Ghous Mohammed) who had identified themselves in a video released by them. Also, the Waco Tribune-Herald twisted the report to mention that the attack ‘represented a dramatic escalation of communal violence in a country riven by deep religious polarization’.
“There have been a spate of attacks by Hindu nationalists on minority groups, especially Muslims — who have been targeted for everything from their food and clothing style to interfaith marriages. Muslim homes have also been demolished using bulldozers in some Indian states, in what critics call a growing pattern of bulldozer justice against the minority group”, the Waco Tribune Herald wrote later stating the fact that Kanhaiya was killed for sharing a post in support of ex-BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma who had made alleged ‘blasphemous’ remarks in the recent past.
With the western media and big tech trying to actively suppress the news of the Islamist brutality and blame Hindus instead, it becomes increasingly important to remember that according to the new social media guidelines by the government, YouTube and other social media giants could lose their safety net as an intermediary if they continue to act as ‘editors’ and suppressing vital news without logical basis.
