"Many Indian Viewers Predicted...": YouTuber Says As India Blocks ‘Honest Govt’ Short
Giordanno Nanni, an Australian-based YouTuber, runs a series called ‘Honest Government Ads’ on his channel called Juice Media. The series comprises deadpan and detailed satirical ads on government policy and behaviour. Lately, his viewers have been requesting videos on India.
In response to the request, he and his team made a video and published an ‘honest government ad’ on the ‘state of democracy’ in India. Most of it had included the wordplay on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that India is the ‘mother of the democracies.’
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The clip struck at Modi’s claim that he was chosen by god, highlighting unemployment and ‘more inequality than what was there under British rule.’ It said that India was moving towards becoming a “fascist ethnostate” and highlighted censorship in the country, reports The Wire.
Nanni uploaded a video just relevant to India as a short on YouTube. After uploading the video, he received a notice from YouTube stating that the Union home ministry had requested that the Short will be blocked in India. The video is now no longer available in India. And he wasn’t surprised at all, Nanni said.
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The YouTuber stated that many Indian viewers had already predicted it would happen right after publishing the full-length video on June 1. However, he was surprised by the severity of the charges the ministry had stated in the notice which includes “inciting a riot” and “insulting the national honour.” “So I also thought that’s a bit of an overreaction to a satirical YouTube video, coming from a country that claims it to be, you know, not a fascist autocracy,” said Nanni, as quoted by The Wire.
This takedown order comes amidst reports of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting proposing to regulate user-generated content on social media directly under the new Broadcasting Services Bill which is in its drafting stage.
It is to be noted that the recently concluded Lok Sabha election is often referred to as “YouTube elections” as many independent content creators on social media have generated awareness multiple times regarding political issues.
Nanni highlighted that the country has only blocked the Shorts while the full-length video is still available which invokes above mentioned laws. And the reason behind taking down Short is that it is more likely to go viral than the original length video, he said.
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The full-length video has garnered over a half million views. Juice Media has a million subscribers on YouTube. Nanni said that the idea of creating satirical ads grew from deeper anger and frustration at the Australian government’s action.
“I thought that we need to do something; and the idea of impersonating the government to provide an honest account of what they are actually doing felt appropriately seditious and comical to cut through. And it did,” he said.
Nanni’s team consists of seven people including two of his young children. Though they target the Australian government the most, they have also covered other countries and it is mainly based on the viewers request they receive.
The channel has been ironically using the “Genuine Satire” label to protect themselves as the Australian government has introduced legislation that criminalizes the impersonation of a government with an exemption for “genuine satire.”
