Centre wants social media platforms to remove content with reference to “Indian variant”

The Information Technology Ministry has directed social media companies to remove content with reference to “Indian variant” of the coronavirus. This comes after the WHO, on May 11, classified the variant B.1.617, which was first identified in India in 2020, as a variant of “global concern”.India

The Indian government a day later issued a statement saying media reports using the term “Indian variant” were without any basis, saying the WHO had classified the variant as just B.1.617. The IT ministry, in a letter to the social media, on Friday asked the companies to remove all the content that names or implies “Indian variant” of the coronavirus.

“This is completely FALSE. There is no such variant of COVID-19 scientifically cited as such by the World Health Organization. WHO has not associated the term “Indian Variant” with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports,” stated the letter, as per Reuters.

An official said the notice was issued to send a message loud and clear that such mentions of “Indian Variant” spread miscommunication and hurt the country’s image. However, across the world, coronavirus variants have genetically been referred to by doctors and health experts on the basis of where they are identified such as the South African and Brazil variants.

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A social media executive told Reuters that it would be difficult to take down all content using the word as there would be hundreds of thousands of such posts. He said such a move would lead to keyword based censorship going forward.

The Indian government has been facing criticism and backlash for its handling of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and has gone on image rebuilding amidst the high caseloads and death toll.