NEW DELHI — A British-made documentary about a grisly gang rape in India spread throughout social media on Thursday, thwarting official efforts to block it and gaining a wide audience despite a government ban.

A spokesman for YouTube in India, Gaurav Bhaskar, said that the company had agreed to a government request to block channels of multiple users who had uploaded the documentary. The original link on the BBC’s own website is still available, he said. By Thursday night, the film had been viewed more than 100,000 times from that link, not including viewings from other sources.

For government regulators, the immediate challenge is to identify and remove links to the film, “India’s Daughter,” that were posted on social media, said Kuldeep Dhatwalia, a spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs, adding that officials from four ministries — overseeing law, broadcasting, information technology and external affairs — “have put their best heads together to find out the best course of action.”