Copycat news channels flourish on YouTube, undermining trust in factual journalism
“Hello and welcome to BBC International News. Let’s dive into today’s headlines,” begins Huw Edwards, a familiar face who presented BBC’s News at Ten until his departure last June. But here’s the twist—he’s speaking in Bangla language.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Across YouTube, numerous channels are impersonating international news outlets, complete with logos, anchors, and even background music.
As YouTube’s policy against impersonation faces challenges, the platform continues to host such channels, even verifying some with the coveted ‘verified’ badge. Advertisements play on these channels, meaning they bring profit to the platform and its unscrupulous content creators.
Dismislab has uncovered 58 YouTube channels impersonating international media outlets and local television networks. The copycats of the likes of BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera upload hundreds of content in Bangla, and some boast over a million subscribers.
An analysis of 168 videos from 14 channels revealed thumbnails with false and misleading information, leaving viewers confused and violating YouTube’s policies.
Media editors warn that these fake channels not only steal the audience from authentic news sources but also blur the line between fact and fiction, eroding trust in legitimate reporting.
Fake BBCs on Youtube
In this study, BBC emerges as the frontrunner in copycat channels on YouTube, with at least 37 channels extensively mimicking BBC’s branding with an average of over 54,000 subscribers each. The largest of these, “Antorjatik Khobor” (International News), stands verified with over 1 million subscribers. Six other channels create the impression of authentic BBC content, replicating its studio aesthetics, graphics, and news presenter Huw Edwards talking, albeit in Bengali.
Notable among the channels mimicking BBC are BBC WORLD LIVE, BBC News 24, BBC WORLD TV, BBC World Desk, and BBC News Bangla (BBC News Bangla). Each channel not only appropriates the BBC’s name but also incorporates its logo into their branding, profile photo, and cover image.
However, the BBC’s terms of use strictly prohibit the replication of its services or the imitation of its appearance, including the use of its brands, trademarks, or logos without permission. These YouTube channels blatantly disregard these terms in their attempt to impersonate the renowned news service.
Some channels skirt around these restrictions by slightly altering the BBC name, such as BAC World News, DBC World News, BDC World News, ABC Bangla News, ABC International News, and ABC World News. However, their logo and branding style remain virtually identical to that of the BBC. At least seven fake channels even add a “grey tick” mark in their profile pictures, falsely implying that they are verified by the platform.
Upon reaching out for comment, the BBC press office responded via email, indicating that their legal team has previously taken action against websites or social media accounts, including YouTube channels, that impersonate the BBC or BBC News Bangla, when notified of their existence. However, the impersonation continues.
Fake CNNs and Others
On YouTube, there are several channels mimicking the US-based Cable News Network (CNN), adopting its logo and branding. Among them are CNN Bangla 24 and CNN Bangladesh, which regularly upload videos. In 2022, CNN authorities sued an IPTV named “CNN Bangla TV News” for using a nearly identical logo. Although the court issued an interim ban on such logos after a preliminary hearing, CNN Bangla TV’s activities persist, with its Facebook page, and YouTube channel still active.
Various channels are found to impersonate Qatar-based Al Jazeera, US-based ABC, and UK-based Reuters by adding words like “Bangla” or “World News” to their channel names and using their logos and branding. However, they garner fewer subscribers compared to the fake BBCs.
A channel, titled “Somoy BD 24 News’ impersonates Bangladeshi media outlet Somoy Television and boasts over 90,000 subscribers featuring the genuine TV channel’s logo on its profile and cover image. This channel frequently uploads videos, disseminating fake or misleading information through titles and thumbnails. Two YouTube channels are found to mimic Ekattor and Jamuna television as well.
Reflecting on this trend, Talat Mamun, executive director of private broadcaster Channel 24, recounted encountering content on YouTube bearing their logo. Initially deceived, Mamun later realized the content was fake. “In many sensitive times, news has been spread on social media with our logo. This is very alarming,” he said.
Policy in Place, Violations Abound, but the Getaway Continues
YouTube strictly prohibits content intended to impersonate individuals or channels, as stated in its Impersonation Policy. According to the policy, if a channel or its content causes confusion about the source of advertised goods and services, it may be disallowed. This includes channels that mimic another’s profile, background, or overall appearance with the intent to deceive.
Specifically addressing news channels, YouTube’s policy dictates that channels cannot be created to imitate existing news-based channels. Violations of this policy may lead to permanent channel or account termination. However, all the aforementioned channels blatantly violate the Impersonation Policy.
Channels directly using the BBC name or logo, as found in this study, are unmistakably impersonating a legitimate news outlet. Even those altering just one letter demonstrate clear intent to imitate the BBC. Similarly, fake channels mimicking Jamuna Television, CNN, and Al Jazeera have also contravened the policy, yet YouTube has failed to detect or take action against them.
Dismislab forwarded all the links of YouTube channels impersonating the BBC to Kamal Ahmed, a senior journalist and former editor of BBC Bangla. According to him, these are nothing short of “unethical and shameful attempts to exploit BBC’s brand value.” “It’s quite alarming that YouTube, as a platform with global dominance, is permitting these unscrupulous individuals to hijack and misuse the identity of a reputable news channel, not only to disseminate misinformation but also to monetize it,” he added.
“I suffer the same loss [due to fake channels] as you do if a product in your business is counterfeited,” said Talat Mamun. “The authorities that are supposed to work on regulating it are not effective in that sense. Even YouTube’s own mechanism to catch these is not working.”
Spreading Lies in Thumbnails
Not only by impersonation, but fake channels are also breaking YouTube’s thumbnail policy. The policy states that thumbnails may not be used in a way that misleads viewers, causing them to believe they are viewing content that is not actually in the video.
The study analyzed the 12 most recent videos from 14 active channels (each with over 1,000 subscribers) imitating the BBC. In each of these 168 videos, the information presented in the thumbnail does not align with the content of the corresponding video.
Most of these counterfeit channels focus on international affairs, particularly religious sentiments and wars, yet the text in their thumbnails is often false and sometimes absurd.
For instance, in Antorjatik Khobor, the channel boasting over 1 million subscribers, a thumbnail of a video posted on March 8 claimed: “Finland goes to war against Israel.” However, upon viewing the video, such information is nowhere to be found. Similarly, thumbnails containing misleading titles like “Indo-China full-scale war starts,” “Israeli capital destroyed,” or “90-ton nuclear attack overnight” are rampant. Some thumbnails even feature images of world leaders like Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi, and Vladimir Putin, alongside warplanes, missiles, and bomb blasts.
Most videos uploaded in the last five months, since the onset of the Israeli offensive on Gaza in October 2023, have misleading thumbnails across almost every channel. These thumbnails peddle falsehoods such as “Destroy Israel in 48 hours“, “Jewish army is fleeing in fear“, “Netanyahu is dead“, or “Israeli soldiers captured and slaughtered” or “6 million Jews slaughtered” perpetuating hateful content.
An illustration of the online popularity of the Israel-Palestine topic is evident in the channel “BBC World TV”. Having uploaded 165 videos thus far, each titled with “Israel-Palestine war,” the thumbnails contain various false reports of Israel’s defeat. Remarkably, the channel has amassed over 10 thousand subscribers within just two months of its launch.
The two channels (BBC-News-BD, BBC News 24) covering Bangladesh-related topics also present false information in their thumbnails. For instance, thumbnails suggesting that “Obaidul Quader has no hope of surviving” or that “Tarique Zia is under attack in London” depict footage from unrelated events. Another thumbnail of a video posted after Bangladesh’s parliamentary elections on January 7, 2024, falsely claimed that the army had announced a re-election, despite no such announcement being made.
“Such fake channels will only act as a catalyst [in the spread] of information distortion, disinformation, and falsehood in the digital space,” said Talat Mamun. “The average media literacy of people in our country is not that high. We don’t verify what we see and who we see; and then maybe at some point we believe that as a fact.”
View-bating and Monetization Systems in Question
An examination of videos from 14 active channels impersonating the BBC, each with over a thousand subscribers, revealed that 13 of these channels did not provide unique titles for their videos. Instead, every video bore the same title, with only the date modified to match the upload day. For instance:
Azad Baig, Digital Growth Editor of the Daily Star, shed light on the rationale behind these titles, stating, “They are a means to lure viewers, as Google/YouTube often prioritize content with recent dates in the headline.” He dubs it “view-bait,” primarily aimed at “misleading the audience.” And the study suggests, this strategy can influence YouTube’s search algorithm.
Researchers conducted multiple searches on YouTube using keywords such as “International News,” “World News,” “International Bangla News,” “antorjatik news,” and “antorjatik khobor,” and found that, each time, almost half of the content displayed in the top ten search results came from fake channels. For example, among the top 10 video results on YouTube for “International News,” five videos were from a channel named “Antorjatik Khobor” that impersonated the BBC.
A UNESCO research paper published in 2018 notes: “the character of social media and messaging platforms that have limited quality control standards for determining what constitutes news, make it easy to counterfeit and mimic legitimate news brands to make frauds look like the real thing.”
One of the factors influencing YouTube ad revenue is the frequency of video views. After scrutinizing 14 channels modeled after the BBC, consistently uploading videos, and employing two separate tools called ‘Is This Channel Monetized‘ and ‘YTLarge Monetization Checker,’ it was discovered that 12 of these channels featured advertisements in their videos. In other words, YouTube also profited from this endeavor.
“YouTube needs to rein in on such fake content creators,” said Kamal Ahmed. “Western governments have made them take responsibility for their platforms and the same should happen here. They [YouTube] should be able to differentiate between freedom of speech and curbing blatant disinformation and misrepresentation.
