The Delhi High Court has ordered to restore the YouTube channel 4PM News, which had been blocked in March following directions from the Centre under the Information Technology Rules. The court also directed that 26 allegedly “objectionable” videos remain blocked.

On March 12, the Union government ordered the channel to be blocked, citing concerns related to national security and public order.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav passed the order on May 5 while disposing of a petition filed by 4PM News and its editor Sanjay Sharma challenging the blocking of the channel in India.

The petition argued that neither Google, which owns YouTube, nor the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had provided them with a formal order or reasons for blocking the channel.

The absence of the order and the lack of reasons for the blocking prevented them from effectively defending themselves before the authorities, the petitioners added.

Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, representing the Centre, submitted that the Inter-Departmental Committee had passed an order on March 24 after examining the material on the channel and concluding that it should not remain accessible to the public, Live Law reported.

The Union government argued that the content was detrimental to “India’s national security, sovereignty and public order”.

In an affidavit before the court, the government alleged that the platform was peddling conspiracy theories about the Pahalgam terror attack and engaging in “digital lobbying” aimed at influencing India’s sovereign decision-making, Bar and Bench reported.

The terror attack at Baisaran near the town of Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, had left 26 persons dead and 17 injured. The terrorists targeted tourists after asking their names to ascertain their religion, the police said. All but three of those killed were Hindu.

In April 2025 as well, the Union government had blocked the YouTube channel. At that time too, it had cited “national security or public order”.

In its recent submission, the government said that the nature of the channel’s content “manifested a consistent degenerative editorial pattern peddling anti-India/anti-Indian Armed Forces/anti-Indian Foreign Policy sentiments across all subjects, time period and formats”.

However, in its May 5 order, the court noted that the channel had uploaded around 50,000 videos and only 26 had been identified as objectionable.

Referring to earlier cases involving similarly placed petitioners, the court observed that such channels had previously been allowed to continue operating while proceedings before the Inter-Departmental Committee were pending.

The court directed the petitioners to appear before the committee, which would identify the allegedly offending material and provide the channel an opportunity to explain or justify the content.

The judge directed YouTube to keep the allegedly objectionable videos blocked while restoring access to the rest of the channel.

Edited by Tanya Shrivastava

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