The Union Ministry of Information Technology on Friday asked social media companies to take down any content that refers to an “Indian vari...
The Union Ministry of Information Technology on Friday asked social media companies to take down any content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the coronavirus, reported Reuters. The news agency has accessed the letter that the government issued to the social media giants.
In its letter, the IT ministry referred to the World Health Organization as it asked the companies to “remove all the content” that names or implies “Indian variant” of the coronavirus. “This is completely FALSE,” read the letter, according to Reuters. “There is no such variant of Covid-19 scientifically cited as such by the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO has not associated the term ‘Indian Variant’ with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in any of its reports.”
Last week, the Union Health Ministry had objected to media reports calling the infectious B.1.617 coronavirus strain the “Indian variant”, saying even the World Health Organization had not used the term in its guidelines. “In fact, the word ‘Indian’ has not been used in its [WHO’s] report on the matter,” the ministry had said. Therefore, reports associating the strain with India “are without any basis, and unfounded”, it added.
On May 12, the WHO said that it did not identify viruses or variants with names of...
