The Information Technology (IT) ministry has asked social media giants to immediately remove any content from their platform that uses or refers to the term ‘Indian variant’ of coronavirus, to curb misinformation around Covid-19.
A notice issued in this regard by the IT ministry states that a “false statement” is being circulated online that 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 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.
The World Health Organization has classified B.1.617 as a variant of global concern, but many reports termed the mutant as “Indian variant
WHO, later, pointed out “WHO does not identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from. We refer to them by their scientific names and request all to do the same for consistency”
Further, before India, Singapore also asked social media giants Twitter and Facebook to carry a correction notice to users in the country on statements claiming a new variant of Sars-Cov-2 originated in the country
“There is no new “Singapore” variant of Covid- 19. Neither is there evidence of any Covid-19 variant that is ‘extremely dangerous for kids,” said their health ministry in a statement.
