Congress accuses YouTube of playing into the hands of ‘ruling dispensation’ after platform advises discretion to watch Priyanka speech

“Will Google, which owns YouTube, explain what is “suicidal or self-harming” in their speeches? Will now raising issues that matter to the people be censored,” asked Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh

The Congress on October 19 accused YouTube of “playing” into the hands of the ruling dispensation after the social media platform advised viewer discretion to watch speeches made by party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Telangana a day earlier.

“By putting a warning tagline on @RahulGandhi’s and @priyankagandhi’s speeches, made in Telangana yesterday, that the content “may contain suicide or self-harm topics”, YouTube has proved beyond any doubt that it is playing into the hands of India’s ruling dispensation, which has been desperately trying to block the messaging from the Opposition,” Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

On Wednesday, while addressing a public rally in poll-bound Telangana, Ms. Vadra had referred to a woman job aspirant, who allegedly died by suicide in Hyderabad last week. “One girl committed suicide and questions were raised that she did not fill up the application herself...Without resolving the problems of youth, fingers are raised on them and employment is not given to you [youth],” she had said.

The link to the video of this speech carries a warning about “suicidal” content.

“Will Google, which owns YouTube, explain what is “suicidal or self-harming” in their speeches? Will now raising issues that matter to the people be censored,” Mr. Ramesh asked.

The Congress allegation against YouTube comes barely days after INDIA bloc had written to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai over their social media platforms’ alleged role in “aiding communal hatred” in the country.

Citing a report in The Washington Post on the role of social media platforms in communal violence, the Opposition bloc had demanded that the platforms maintain neutrality in the upcoming elections.