A serious controversy has emerged as prominent Indian YouTubers Mohak Mangal, Dhruv Rathee, and Nitish Rajput have accused Asian News International (ANI), India’s largest news agency, of exploiting YouTube’s copyright strike system to extort money from content creators.

According to Mohak Mangal, ANI issued multiple copyright strikes against his videos for brief clips they claimed violated their copyrights. Unlike standard content claims that allow monetization sharing, ANI allegedly bypassed this and used the more severe copyright strike mechanism. This puts creators at risk of losing channel monetization or, in extreme cases, complete deletion of their channels.

Mangal alleges that an ANI representative demanded ₹45 lakh from him to lift these strikes and threatened further strikes that could endanger his channel if he did not comply. Other creators reportedly paid amounts ranging from ₹18 lakh to ₹50 lakh to get similar strikes removed. These demands were for lump-sum payments rather than revenue sharing or licensing agreements, raising serious ethical and legal questions.

This practice, if true, represents an abuse of YouTube’s copyright system and a potential extortion scheme preying on creators’ livelihoods. Mangal has appealed to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to launch a formal investigation into ANI’s conduct, stressing that this issue affects the entire Indian creator community and undermines fair content creation and dissemination.

ANI has yet to publicly respond to these allegations. The controversy has sparked widespread concern among YouTubers and digital rights advocates, highlighting the urgent need for stronger safeguards against misuse of copyright claims on digital platforms. As content creation continues to grow in India, this case could set important precedents for copyright law enforcement and creator protections on YouTube and beyond.