News Tamil Nadu

YouTube Removes Popular Tamil Socio-Political Satire Channel ‘PoliTalks’ That Busts Dravidianist Myth

March 19, 2025
The Commune

The popular YouTube channel PoliTalk’s has been taken down by YouTube, just days after it was recovered from a malicious hacking incident. This time, YouTube cited severe or repeated violations of its Harmful and Dangerous Content policy as the reason for the removal. However, in contrast to YouTube’s claims, PoliTalk’s had gained immense popularity for its satirical content, which focused on exposing the lies and hypocrisies of Dravidianist, garnering a large following of viewers.

On 19 March 2025, PoliTalk’s announced via its official X account that its YouTube channel had been permanently taken down. In its official communication, YouTube stated, “We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our harmful and dangerous policy. Because of this, we have removed your channel from YouTube.” 

Previously, on 13 March 2025, PoliTalk’s announced via its official X account, “My gmail and Youtube account is hacked. Channel user name is “@politalkstamil” and now its showing channel has been closed. The hackers added a USB security key, changed the password, and recovery email.” 

Notably, during the same period, on 11 March 2025, “The Commune” magazine also fell victim to a cyberattack, with its website being hacked and its links redirected to multiple unrelated and baseless sites.

The websites like that act independently able to recover by itself but it took time of around a week to neutralise the threat find the loopholes etc., and came back online on 18 March 2025 but YouTube channels like PoliTalks which works between the framework under the YouTube’s own policy plays only by its books and it offers enormous pages to report and seize freedom of expression by any means necessary curb different views but has no options for the victim to claim that he has been bullied and played is the sad reality.

Independent websites can recover on their own, but the process takes time. In the case of “The Commune”, it took around a week to neutralize the threat, identify vulnerabilities, and restore operations, finally coming back online on 18 March 2025. However, YouTube channels like PoliTalk’s, which operate within YouTube’s own framework and policies, are bound by its rules. The platform provides extensive mechanisms for reporting and taking down content, effectively restricting freedom of expression under the guise of enforcement. Unfortunately, there are no real options for creators to challenge wrongful takedowns or defend themselves against targeted abuse, highlighting the one-sided nature of YouTube’s moderation system.

In a recent explanation video following the first recovery of the PoliTalks YouTube channel, its creator Vignesh detailed how the hack unfolded. “On 12 March, I received a notification on my phone alerting that someone was attempting to access my email ID. Within I clicked on the notification to select ‘It was not me,’ and block the access. However, within the next two minutes, the password, recovery email, and phone number were changed. The entire access to our channel had been transferred to someone else. I had no idea where it went or how it happened—it was a complete blackout for me.”

With the support of SMaRT4Bharat and Divomusics India, Vignesh was able to recover the channel. However, upon reviewing past activities, they discovered that the hackers’ intent was not the usual extortion or reselling of the channel. Instead, their malicious goal was to ensure the channel’s removal by YouTube by violating its policy guidelines. During the time the channel was under their control, a livestream was broadcast for several hours, likely triggering YouTube’s enforcement actions.

Rising Trend of Digital Suppression?

Whether it’s the malicious cyberattack targeting The Commune magazine or the removal of YouTube channels like PoliTalks, a disturbing pattern appears to be emerging voices are being silenced through digital means when legal avenues fail. This is not the first time PoliTalks has faced suppression.

PoliTalks Taken Down: A Repeated Target

Back in June 2023, PoliTalks was abruptly terminated by YouTube after a copyright complaint was filed by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., through its partner AiPlex—a company specializing in online reputation management and content removal strategies.

Despite its large following, PoliTalks gained attention for its satirical content, which challenged the narratives of Dravidianists, exposing inconsistencies and hypocrisies in their rhetoric.

The takedown followed PoliTalks’ critical coverage of Zee Tamil’s talk show Tamizha Tamizha, hosted by left-wing filmmaker Karu Palaniappan. Several episodes sparked controversy, including discussions on:

  • Marriage vs. Live-in Relationships
  • Traditional Women vs. Feminists

Critics accused the show of pushing Dravidianist propaganda under the guise of women empowerment, influencing social narratives in a particular direction.

PoliTalks openly criticized these episodes, and its videos went viral, surpassing a million views each. The backlash was so intense that Zee TV ultimately replaced the show’s anchor in March 2023 following public pressure.

The Copyright Strike Takedown

In May 2023, AiPlex—on behalf of Zee TV—sent a deletion request to PoliTalks. However, as YouTube allows criticism and review of publicly available content, the platform did not remove the videos.

Frustrated, AiPlex took a different approach, selectively reporting specific PoliTalks videos for copyright violations. Since YouTube automatically disables channels receiving three or more strikes, this method led to PoliTalks’ termination.

A total of six videos featuring clips from Tamizha Tamizha were flagged, ultimately triggering the channel’s removal.

Who Is Karu Palaniappan?

Karu Palaniappan was formerly a Tamil cinema director and is the son of politician Pala Karuppaiah who is known for hopping from one party to another (AIADMK, DMK, Kamal Haasan’s MNM, to name a few). He is Dravidian Stockist and identifies himself as a ‘Periyarist’, a follower of rabid anti-Hindu demogogue EV Ramasamy Naicker.

Palaniappan is known for peddling canards against Hindus especially Tamil Brahmins.

In the above speech, Karu Palaniappan says “First let us drive them (Brahmins) out of our state to other states and then we will drive them out of the country.”

Karu Palaniappan has been in the news every now and then for his remarks on Savarkar. When quitting the show, Karu Palaniappan shared a Facebook post where he mentioned that “…if the words social justice, self-respect, Dravidam are bitter, it is better to end the journey!” After he quit (a few sources say he was made to) Zee Tamil, he joined DMK-owned Kalaignar TV to host the show “Va Tamizha Va”.

Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.