YouTuber Mohak Mangal has accused the media agency’s officials of blackmailing and demanding money in the name of giving copyright strikes and ultimately shutting down their channels. Mohak has accused ANI of demanding 48 lakh rupees for taking down the copyright strikes that he has received from the media agency.
Who is Mohak Mangal?
Mohak Mangal is a famous YouTuber and digital content creator known for his Soch by Mohak channel, where he provides in-depth analysis on current topics and shares his views. The channel has around 4 million subscribers.
What did Mohak say in his latest Video
Mohak Mangal, in his video, shared call recordings of his team member talking to an ANI official in which they are discussing the copyright strikes, and the official asks Mohak for a sum of 45 lakh rupees plus GST, which Mohak claims is complete thuggery in the name of copyrighting and taking down their channels.
Mohak shares the background of the story wherein he tells that his channel received two strikes on two videos where he used a short clip of ANI, which was around 10-15 seconds. One on the video he made on the Kolkata rape case, for which he used a short clip of 11 seconds in his 16-minute video; another strike he received was for a video that he created on Operation SINDOOR, in which he used 9 seconds of footage from ANI in his 34-minute video. He further shared that on talking to the ANI official, they got to know that 6 more copyright strikes have been filed by them and the channel will receive them soon
According to Mohak, YouTube has a policy of taking down the channel if it receives three copyright strikes. So, a member of Mahak’s chief of staff talked to another creator who also received similar strikes and had his channel deleted. For taking away those copyright claims, ANI asked for an amount of 22 lakh rupees plus GST, but with some negotiations, the creator ended up paying 18 lakh rupees plus GST.
When Mohak’s team member Ajeesh Babu talked to the ANI official, he asked for an amount of 45 lakhs plus GST. The official said that Mohak has used their footage, and for that they are putting the copyright strikes, which YouTube has also approved. The official further added that this money is for the yearly subscription to ANI footage and taking down the copyright strike. On further negotiations, the official agreed for 40 lakh rupees for 2 year subscription and 30 Lakh rupees for 1 year subscription when Ajeesh requested the ANI person that they wont be able to recover from paying that much money
Mohak Mangal is very furious and stresses the fact that he won’t pay any money to the media agency. He has sent emails to the PMO and I&B Minister Ashwini Vaishnav regarding this extortion. And he also asks for support from the creator community and the public to stand against this extortion.
Further, he requests his followers to share the video and to unsubscribe and block ANI’s channels and social media platforms.
What is ANI and what is its Business model
ANI (Asian News International) is a popular media agency in India. It was founded in 1971 by Mr. Prem Prakash and is currently led by Sanjeev Prakash and Smita Prakash. The agency works on a B2B (business-to-business) model in which they sell video and audio footage to other news channels. Their major revenue comes from selling subscriptions and licensing their content. ANI has the largest distribution network and is said to have close ties with the government; they get all the important government footage and press releases at priority. All the major news and media channels use their footage and have purchased their subscriptions.
Reactions from other Youtube creators
Many other YouTubers have taken a stand with Mohak Mangal and requested the government to interfere in this matter, and they also called ANI an extortion agency that earns by blackmailing independent creators. The creator’s community is in full support of Mohak.
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