India Today, YouTube and the stifling of speech

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Editor's note: In the days leading up to 1 October, independent news media company Newslaundry received multiple copyright complaints on their YouTube channel from Hindi news channel Aaj Tak—whose coverage the former often critiques and dissects in a satirical fashion. As the month turned, Newslaundry’s YouTube account was frozen owing to YouTube’s automated copyright policy. The India Today Group, which owns Aaj Tak, continued to file claims even after the channel was taken down. Textbook bullying.  This is not the first time that a company has used YouTube’s copyright policy to shut down criticism. Whitehat Jr came under the scanner late last year for using YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn’s tools to bring down negative commentary on its coding classes. Its parent company Byju’s had the exact same reaction to criticism on YouTube. File legal “copyright infringement” complaints with the video platform, have the account taken down. Large entertainment companies, from film studios to music labels, have often done the same in India and around the world. T-Series and Yash Raj Films have used YouTube copyright claim tools (different from copyright strikes) to …