New Delhi: YouTube Thursday removed a video in which a content creator with over 4 lakh subscribers said certain journalists, activists and fact-checkers must be “hanged to death” for “conspiring against India”.
The video had been posted on a channel called ‘The String’, founded by one Vinodh Kumar, who is reported to be a 29-year-old alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Warangal.
YouTube said in a message on the page that the video has been removed for violating its policy on harassment and bullying.
While several journalists expressed their outrage at the video and that YouTube had allowed it to be aired, many BJP leaders including Kapil Mishra and Tajinder Singh Bagga voiced their support for it.
Senior journalist and editor and owner of YouTube channel Mojo, Barkha Dutt said the video was “crappy, defamatory, violent, threatening”.
This crappy, defamatory, violent, threatening video calling for our arrest and worse is on @Twitter @YouTube @instagram. This is your litmus test if you're at all serious about platform cleansing. And finally, for the creators of this video, go shove it. https://t.co/RSnOIzkRvh
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) February 11, 2021
Others like journalists Faye D’Souza and The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran also reacted sharply.
RTI activist Saket Gokhale pointed out that this “hateful propaganda” was “being promoted by BJP IT cell”.
The video (now taken down) was being promoted by BJP IT cell. BJP spokesperson @SureshNakhua even tweeted the video tagging me, praised it & challenged me to take legal action.
It's time that creators of such hateful propaganda & its enablers face the full force of the law. https://t.co/yM6QNpo59a
— Saket Gokhale (@SaketGokhale) February 11, 2021
You don't get to decide who is anti-national bcos this nation ain't your property. A govt is not the nation.
You can incite violence and ask for journalists to be hanged. But I will keep asking readers to support good journalism. Here is TNM link- https://t.co/YKFhcsTxHN
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) February 11, 2021
In the last 24hrs – we took a big leap towards #QAnonCult style of content. Conspiracy theories mixed with call for mass hangings of journalists asking tough questions. While @TeamYouTube took down the video; the channel is active & will produce more hate.https://t.co/uNkD3bpMTL
— The DeshBhakt (@TheDeshBhakt) February 11, 2021
I’ve reached a point of exhaustion and disgust at the things that are said to me on a daily basis. There are other journalists, esp women, who are stronger and made of sterner stuff. I have so much respect for them. Sigh. https://t.co/V9Wf0zB3vY
— Faye DSouza (@fayedsouza) February 11, 2021
Also read: ‘Conspiracy to malign Indian tea’ — Modi takes dig at ‘Greta toolkit’ in Assam speech
What the video said
In the video, Kumar alleged that environmental activist Greta Thunberg’s support for farmers’ protest in India was a “planned event”, and vowed to expose the “toolkit incident”.
He also said there is a nexus between institutions funded by US billionaire George Soros and certain Indian media outlets and activists. He said several journalists, activists and fact-checkers were part of a “money trail” that traced back to Soros.
A teaser of the now-deleted video was also posted on Twitter, and has gathered over 5.5 lakh views since Wednesday.
Hon'ble @narendramodi ji @HMOIndia @MEAIndia @NIA_India @dir_ed
MY LIFE'LL BE IN DANGER AFTER THIS VIDEO & ONLY U CAN SAVE ME.#StringReveals has #StringedDeshdrohis & exposed the #RealGodiMedia & their #MoneyTrail.
REFER-https://t.co/7xwDLUoVHm
VID:https://t.co/k2PEwlPC1D
1/3 pic.twitter.com/12TwEybSmj
— The String (@StringReveals) February 10, 2021
The “toolkit” referred to in the video is a document posted by Thunberg last week that sought to explain how people worldwide could express their support for the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi’s borders. Thunberg had in her tweet said the toolkit had been prepared by people on the ground.
The support expressed by international figures like Thunberg and popstar Rihanna to the farmers’ protest in India has stoked a controversy, with the Indian government describing it as the work of “vested interest groups trying to enforce their agenda on these protests and derail them”.
The first toolkit tweeted by Thunberg — before it was deleted and substituted with an “updated version” — also led Delhi Police to file a sedition FIR against unknown persons.
Kumar’s video — which is in English — was promoted as an “attempt” to get to the bottom of the toolkit shared by Thunberg. Kumar said he aimed to get behind Thunberg’s “money trail”, and said her tweet in support for farmers was a “planned event”.
He claimed that the toolkit shared by the activist in February had been “planned” five months earlier.
According to Kumar, DIGIPUB found a mention in Thunberg’s toolkit. DIGIPUB is an association of India’s digital media outlets and independent journalists. Its founding members include AltNews, Scroll, Newslaundry, The Quint, The News Minute, and The Wire.
He listed all the members of DIGIPUB and asked: “Why is it again matching with the Greta leaked toolkit names?… This is not a coincidence.”
The video also targeted, by name, journalists Barkha Dutt, Alt News fact-checker Mohammed Zubair, RTI activist Saket Gokhale, YouTuber Dhruv Rathee and media entities including DIGIPUB members, Caravan, Outlook, PARI, India Spend and the Congress party.
In the video, Kumar can be seen “requesting” the CBI, ED and the Modi government to “probe” these particular news outlets for their “money trails”. He claimed that if these outlets were investigated, their money trails would prove to be linked to “someone big”.
He alleged that these media entities had received funds to carry out “propaganda” against India. He also warned YouTuber Dhruv Rathee: “Dhruv Rathee, your countdown has begun, pack your bags, shut down your fake channel and go on a long trip with your girlfriend.”
Kumar again called for journalists to be “hanged to death”. “You (Rathee) used articles from The Quint, The Wire, Alt News and Newslaundry as authentic sources. I prove with facts that these are anti-national elements that are directly involved in destabilising the country. Now when they will be hanged to death, whose article will you use?”
Kumar also alleged that Rathee, Zubair, Alt News’ Pratik Sinha, The Wire’s Arfa Khanum Sherwani, Newslaundry’s Abhinandan Sekri were the “reason” the economy of this country was not doing well. He also targeted journalist Barkha Dutt and her venture Mojo and asked the Modi government to “investigate its money trails”.
“Even after giving so many proofs and paths for agencies to follow, Modi ji if you won’t shut down (these media outlets), you won’t deserve a next term in 2024,” Kumar said.
What BJP leaders said
Several BJP leaders demanded the video be made public again by YouTube.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra, who was accused of giving a provocative hate speech on the eve of riots in northeast Delhi last year, said the video was “bringing out the truth”.
This is unacceptable ..@StringReveals video was bringing out truth and had nothing illegal or offensive @YouTubeIndia need to make this video public again https://t.co/8SXWnbdOGd
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) February 11, 2021
BJP MLA Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga claimed the video had “shaken up a 70-year-old ecosystem”.
. @StringReveals के 1 वीडियो से हिल गया 70 साल पुराना इको सिस्टम ।
— Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) February 11, 2021
.@KathirNews YouTube channel with 30K Subscribers & videos(interviews, political programs etc.) overnight got suspended by #YouTube! No content violation, no strikes. Whatever happenend to @StringReveals isn't surprising, next attack will be suspending #StringReveals Channel now.
— SG Suryah (@SuryahSG) February 11, 2021
Praising video is my freedom of speech and prerogative.
Taking legal action is your right.
And what is this puerile challenged me and all.
If u can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. https://t.co/9RU9M5YvbS
— Suresh Nakhua (सुरेश नाखुआ) (@SureshNakhua) February 11, 2021
Also read: Didn’t pay Rihanna, Greta Thunberg or others to tweet on farm protests — Canada firm PJF
This report replaces an earlier version which wasn’t adequately researched. Which we regret sincerely.
He did very good job…. he came out with the evidence… defendants need not to accept this .. truth will come out as time passes just wait and see.. fraud fake anti nationals should go behind the bars .they are doing nonsense in the name journalism… conspiracy on Indian culture… what a shame you guys… live like human not like animals…. accept the truth and face him .t you can’t hide truth
Facts are there .. But i am worried about those who are defending these facts ..
The librals 🙂
The worst part about his videos are that he keeps making a fool of his followers and they don’t even realize it.
Why doesn’t he submit all his “evidence” in courts? I am sure the NIA, CBI, CID, Delhi police, national cyber security teams, local law enforcement agencies and courts can use his “expertise”.
Even he knows all his content is just rubbish and would never stand the scrutiny of the law.
Do people even understand the implications of his videos?
There are two possibilities here. He is right and all the sophisticated investigation agencies in India are wrong and can’t find a shred of proof or he is just making stupid conspiracy videos and the law enforcement agencies are wise enough to not pay much attention. Think for yourself.
facts se drr lgta hai brainwashed leftist ko.
more investigations should be made on this left ecosystem, the useful idiots for Soros, if he had his way, he might make another billion and then some before he leaves the building, as he did with Bank of England in the 80s.
he has just reveal the facts, really such a nice investigation.
surprisingly left nexus media channels r complaining about
that how he used threatening words but r not seeing how he
actually manages to find out the truth. indeed left nexus is working
against india & planning to destabilize the country.
good luck string.
He was completely right , deleting the video is curbing freedom of expression
I am really interested in knowing how it is a hateful video except for him saying “hang them”, which again implies he wants legal action against them. He does not instigate violence against them or extrajudicial killings or suparis. So, comparing his statement to killing of GAURI LANKESH or GANDHI is bullshit.
I have seen his videos several times. Not a fan of his and I even started arguments with his fans because he is very selective with his facts and does not bring anyone in the discussions to oppose those facts. He has never done a debate with the opposition.
Just as he accuses the leftist journalists like Dhruv Rathee of choosing leftist newspapers, this fellow also shows only right wing news articles as facts such as OPINDIA.
The fellow is not objective as a journalists just like he accuses the leftist journalists. He does not even mention his identity and his qualifications or whether he has verified facts from independent sources. One of the videos even maligned WIKIPEDIA, which I have been using since 10 years and anyone who uses clearly knows that the website is a free for all. There is no editor to choose the articles or to modify the articles to any particular viewpoint.
Frankly, my medical opinion is that the anchor of “THE STRING” show on YOUTUBE needs a psychiatric evaluation.
Psychiatric evaluation? That’s an American term for over simplifying something that the psychiatrist pretends to be expert of and then produce a half assed report based on his limited knowledge on the subject and claiming as final and foolproof, just to sail through the justice system. You should be ashamed of being a blind West follower and making uninformed comments.
As I was expecting this article from you guys. You were also on that list don’t you? Take some ice.
None of them bothered to “hit-back” with half as much of a decent answer as to WHY their names were in the toolkit. Instead of clearing their names, they are THE ones who are inciting more disgust & violence PLUS dividing the nation by supporting the likes of Soros. YouTube didn’t take down the video of Business Casual’s Video on how Soros tried to break the UK in the 90s.
And what’s with the new article lol ?
The BJP fellows have used Youtube, Twitter, Facebook etc. to promote their hate agenda, and lynch mobs. But they do not want others to question them. If they do, hang the journalists. It is the typical fascist mode. Use propaganda to promote violence; and use violence to silence opposition.
These are the people who killed Gauri Lankesh. And Gandhi.
We have Tejaswi Surya, the great nationalist, who used Twitter to write messages against Arabs, till Indians forwarding those messages got deported.
When Twitter blocked Trump for promoting hate mobs, the same Indians expressed outrage about curbs on free speech and democracy ! Fascists who don’t tolerate dissent want to defend free speech piously.
However, the times have changed. In the US, Biden is cracking down on Facebook etc. for allowing hate speech. So if Indian right wing users of social media think that they can continue using it for promoting violence, the clamp down will come from pressure by civil rights groups in the US. The technology for social media is with developed countries, not India. These cow dung fellows of the north will not be able to develop their own social media technology.
I am not sure whether you are naive or simply sinister. This video does not express hate but exposes hate of left wingers for any ideology that is opposed to theirs, I have seen the entire video and it only reveals the connections between events based on their timelines and information from the leaked toolkit. This connection leading all the way back to a certain left-leaning billionaire bigot called George Soros who is actively and openly indulging in inciting Indian people against the ruling party which has had a massive electoral victory and the continues to maintain its popularity and support base. This is of several things – democracy undermined, treason and interference in domestic politics. Hate and violence are tools that have their appropriate usages and directing it on traitors who bed foreign interests and ideologies is definitely one of them. So I would support it even if the content falls in Youtube’s category of “Hate speech”. Hate is a primate human expression that deserves as much freedom as any other expression when appropriate. We need hate to clean out the British colonial bastards and the their servile attitude and ensure that we stay clean for a long time.
Just a lot of name-calling. You lose the battle once you stoop to that level. If you are an Indian, must be one of those idiots always looking for approval from the west. If you can, negate it with some facts. As for George Soros, it is publicly available document where-in he has stated that he is going to fund organisations to bring down an elected executive of the country, that country being ours. You are one of those people why India has been ruled by foreigners for more than 700 years. The nation is of no value to you as long as you get the right price. As for America, they can shove it where the sun doesn’t shine and first get their own civil rights in place before dictating us. We have been here for 8000+ yrs and we will be here.
This fanatical hate filled rant shows how right wing Hindu fascists’ thin-skin and conspiratorial nature cannot tolerate any criticism and have an insane propensity to commit terrorism and violence towards all critics. Just because someone criticizes the government doesn’t mean they are traitors or should be expelled. If that’s the case than non-bjp state governments should expel every right wing Hindu fanatic critic. India is becoming a 1930s German-style insane asylum. British should come back and show how to run a free democracy as the Indian Hindu majority can’t figure it out. What a bunch of nutters!
It is not understood that how Indian government IT cell was unable to trace what was traced by String . If what has been brought out about links is correct then it is failure of Indian intelligence agencies , for as brought out this plan was 5 months old
Shame of you The Print useless news channel
I thank The Print for promoting this video 😛
Same people were happily and irresponsibly promoting FarmerGenocide hashtag and that the government was bombing farmer protests. As SG says, “iss hamam me sab nange hai”!
LOL. This article was in the front page of the site. Now its just vanished, within a span of few hours. Why? The reason is, I suspect, they don’t want to blow it out of proportion. Silencing, intellectual guerrilla warfare, attack via legal methods, the left will try every trick in the book. Simpletons like The String need to go a long way in countering it effectively. Right now the video demonstrates what they are – sloppy at actual results, good at sensationalism (And who really believes the video calls for any kind of violence really. It is the guys style, that’s all. See other videos and you will know).
Abhi bhi dikh raha hai chicha
Jokers on DigiPub. Fake news brigade. Time to re-release Barkha’s telephone conversation. Does she have any credibility? A presstitute by choice. Shame!
The original article brought down in 10 minutes and replaced with this one.
The orginal read “Youtube removes video ‘Exposing Gretha Tunberg Toolkit,’Soros Nexus with indian media”.
with
‘Hang them’ — YouTuber threatens journalists in now deleted video ‘exposing’ Greta toolkit .. Content too altered considerably.
Hope KAIRVY GREWAL doesn’t loose her Job..
All for independent Journalism 🙂
Hypocrite print media
Hey print have you heard the story of “shishupala” …soon you foreign funded people will meet the same faith…just wait a while…and it would be fair because you all are the reason for disturbance in India…fake news propagator …George Soros’s children u will not be allowed here..
Honestly he did not incite any such violence but these guys condemning him is pot calling the kettle black. However, I would be happy if the country is permanently rid of the George Soros funded gang!
It’s so nice to see how it got hit where it hurts the most for the leftist paid journalists spreading Anti-India Propaganda ??
I have seen the video. My question to YouTube is what in the video is wrong, or inaccurate. The video has presented clear facts which completely bear out the story. The onus is on these so called journalists and media houses to prove these facts wrong. And except for the usual mass hysteria associated with these so called journalists, no formal fact based rebuttal has come out. Perhaps the print can help here
Mr. Vinodh should have added the name of Ms. Kairvy Grewal, Ms. Rama Lakshmi, Mr. Shivam Vij too in his video.
These “journalists” too are engaged in the business of dissing the Indian govt on the basis of flimsy data/facts while encouraging all sorts of anti-India activities.
Ms. Grewal’s biased and partisan articles – basically her personal opinion masquerading as news – are shameful and by no stretch of imagination can be termed as “journalism”.
If the government is sincere about curbing hate news and fake news in social media they should act against this YouTuber. Otherwise their action against Twitter and the regulations they plan to enforce on social media will bring hollow
They are not sincere, the govt. has used the IT cell to foster fake news and hate messages. They have cynically profited from it, to expect criminals to be the law enforcers is a vain hope.
The regulations the govt. plans to enforce for social media is only to silence their critics, not to silence their supporters who have weaponised the social media against minorities and liberals, and you have brought this lynching culture and intimidation.
You will see the people shouting most against Youtube when they block their hate mongering is these hatemongers – then they become quite sanctimonious and ask where has free speech gone.