The “banned’’ documentary India’s Daughter remained accessible in the country on various online video-sharing platforms, including YouTube, for the third consecutive day on Saturday.
Reports from overseas suggested that the BBC, citing copyright issues, had asked Google to withdraw the documentary from YouTube across the globe.
In India, the documentary continued to be viewed with considerable interest. One YouTube link had registered 47,789 views at 4.03 p.m. Half-an-hour later, the number of views of the same link stood at 49,956. A separate link to the same film had registered 99,187 views at 7.47 p.m.
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The film will be screened again on BBC Four at 10 p.m. on Sunday, again exclusively for the U.K. audience. Before the controversy broke out last Tuesday, the documentary was scheduled to be released in India and some other countries on Sunday to coincide with International Women’s Day.
As the government swung into action on Tuesday and secured a court injunction on the screening of the film across media platforms in India, the BBC advanced the screening to Wednesday night. The film was available on YouTube by the following morning across the world.
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Though Google India did take down YouTube links to the film that were sent to it by the government for removal, the exercise turned into a cat-and-mouse game as people across the world, including the Indian diaspora, shared the documentary on every video-sharing platform available, rendering the ban ineffective in India.