Remove content refers to an “Indian variant” of the coronavirus ;IT ministry urges social media firms

The information technology ministry has notified all social media firms urging them to remove any content that relates to an “Indian variant” of the coronavirus, according to a letter issued on Friday.The World Health Organization stated that on May 11 that the coronavirus variant B.1.617, first recognized in India last year, was being differentiated as a variant of global concern.

The government a day later declared a notification saying media reports using the term “Indian Variant” were without any foundation, saying the WHO had classified the variant as just B.1.617.In a letter to social media firms on Friday, the IT ministry told the companies to “remove all the content” that names or hints “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 Organisation (WHO). 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, which is not public.A senior government source told that the notice was declared to convey a message “loud and clear” that such defines of “Indian variant” extent miscommunication and damage the country’s persona.

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The IT ministry refused to provide with a comment.Globally, coronvirus variants have generically been recognized by doctors and health specialists on the basis of where the are identified. This comprises of South Africa and Brazil variants.A social media representative said it would be hard to remove all content using the word as there would be hundreds of thousands of such posts, continuing that “such a move would lead to keyword based censorship going forward.”