Ministry Wants Social Media to Remove All Content Referring to ‘Indian Covid Variant’

An Indian healthcare worker gives a dose of COVID-19 vaccine to a beneficiary during a Drive-In vaccination at DLF City Centre Mall in Gurugram on May 22. (Yogendra Kumar/ANI photo)

NEW DELHI – The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has asked all social media platforms to immediately remove all content that refers to or implies an “Indian variant” of coronavirus.

In an advisory to social media platforms, MEIT said this is in line with earlier advisories to curb fake news, misinformation concerning coronavirus on platforms.

The Ministry said it has come to its notice that a false statement is being circulated online which implies that an “Indian variant” of coronavirus is spreading across the countries.

“This is completely false. There is no such variant of Covid-19 scientifically called as such by the World Health Organization. WHO has not associated the term “Indian variant” with the B1617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports,” the Ministry said.

This has already been clarified by the Health Ministry on May 12 and now social media platforms have been asked to remove all contents which refers to an “Indian variant” of Covid. (See India-West story here https://bit.ly/2Td6f95, entitled, “Will Indian American Community Become Next Target of Hate Crimes as Term ‘India Virus’ Spreads Online?”)