YouTuber Mohak Mangal and Rajat Pawar have accused ANI of demanding money to remove strikes from their channels
Creator Mohak Mangal claimed in a recent YouTube video called “Dear ANI” that news organization Asian News International (ANI) had repeatedly sent copyright strikes on his YouTube channel and then sought ₹45 lakh + GST to have them taken down.
YouTuber Rajat Pawar vs ANI copyright case controversy explained as Mohak Mangal’s video goes viral on Twitter/X
After Mohak Mangal, now many top YouTubers are coming out against Smita Prakash and ANI
The extortion nexus is EXPOSED 🔥
Open the thread and share max 🧵 pic.twitter.com/DUlBsOANdg
— Amock_ (@Amockx2022) May 26, 2025
Since then, his video has received a lot of attention on social media. It shows a number of emails along with phone conversations between his team and an ANI official.
Meanwhile, a string of other YouTubers have come out as well calling out ANI for similar instances. These claims include YouTuber Rajat Pawar who has claimed that ANI asked him for Rs.18 lakhs plus GST for a 9 second clip he used of the organization for a video on UP topper Prachi Nigam after sending a copyright strike on it on 7 May, 2025. Rajat who comes from a humble background used to work in a call centre before turning into a YouTuber with him now having 3 million subscribers.
For a 9-second clip, @ANI copyright mafia is demanding 18 lakh rupees—and acting like they’re doing us a favor! Suppressing individual creators has always been easy and profitable for these big companies. pic.twitter.com/BvVKFdDb36
— Rajat Pawar (@RajatPawar542) May 25, 2025
Mohak Mangal claimed that on May 20, a video pertaining to a well-known r*pe case in Kolkata was the subject of the first copyright strike on his channel. He claims that the 16-minute commentary portion in the film, which was first released months ago, had 11 seconds of ANI material. According to Mohak, he thought this was in conformity with YouTube’s fair use policies, which permit the use of brief videos for criticism and commentary.
Operation Sindoor was the other video which was the subject of a second strike. In this video Mohak’s crew used nine seconds of footage of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during a 38-minute portion. According to YouTube’s policy of deleting channels that receive three copyright strikes, Mohak’s channel was now one strike away from being deleted.
ANI had issued identical copyright strikes to other channels as well.
⚠️ Mohak Mangal exposes ANI’s alleged extortion!
– Copyright strikes for 9-sec clips.
– ANI demands ₹50L or channel deletion.
– Fair use ignored, other creators hit too.
– Reported to I&B Ministry.
Is this censorship? #ANIExposed pic.twitter.com/szcf0ulgRb— Bong Rebel (@BongRebel) May 26, 2025
According to a video by Mohak Mangal, he learned that ANI had issued identical copyright strikes against several other content creators as well. He claims that his sources claim that some creators pay between ₹15 lakh and ₹50 lakh in order to have their strikes by ANI lifted.
According to reports, one of the unnamed creators paid ₹18 lakh plus GST. Using the phone number that another impacted author provided, Mohak’s team got in touch with ANI. This led to an email conversation wherein the representative of ANI purportedly offered a one-year subscription to ANI’s footage and charged ₹45 lakh plus GST to remove the strikes.
Mohak claimed that in order to maintain access to the channel, ANI gave a bulk settlement offer rather than requesting a revenue share from the individual videos in question.
He is Rajat Pawar, a Youtuber who creates funny videos.
He used to work in a call center, but YouTube changed his life & today he has 3M+ subscribers.
But now his career is about to get finished because ANI is extorting him for ₹18 lakhs + GST 💔
Only because he used 9 sec… pic.twitter.com/W70hUNeAcM
— Ankit Mayank (@mr_mayank) May 26, 2025