A few days ago, Vishnu Manchu, who is the president of the Movie Artistes' Association (MAA), issued a public statement, warning Telugu Youtubers to remove all defamatory or derogative content about the Telugu film industry. The statement came in light of the controversy surrounding a video posted by Youtuber Praneeth Hanumanthu on his channel, in which he and his friends made offensive remarks about a father-daughter video. On Thursday, MAA announced its decision to block 18 Youtube channels that were found guilty of ‘spreading harmful content.’

The association, on their X page, posted, “As part of our ongoing efforts to terminating the YouTube channels for posting derogatory content on our artists, we have blocked an additional 18 channels that spread harmful content.” In a separate X post, the association urged Youtubers and social media trollers to take note of the same, adding, “We are preparing to report defamatory troll videos to Cyber Crime office. Kindly remove such content from your channels and profiles to avoid complications.”

It is to be noted that a few days ago, the association had blocked five Youtube channels which were found guilty of posting ‘derogatory comments about actors, their families, and personal attacks.’