The Government of India has ordered social media platforms to remove all content mentioning the “Indian variant” of the coronavirus.
Variant B.1.617, which was first identified in India last year, is said to be the most prevalent variant of COVID-19 in South Asian countries.
This variant has also spread to Britain and at least 43 other countries, and the term “Indian variant” is widely used to refer to the coronavirus mutation that was first identified in India.
The government order, sent Friday by the Ministry of Information and Technology, highlights the government’s sensitivity to allegations of improper management of the new pandemic wave.
In the order, the ministry said that social media companies should “remove the content” where they refer to the new version as the “Indian version”.
“We understand that a false statement circulating on the Internet stating that the ‘Indian version’ of the coronavirus is spreading to all countries. This is completely untrue “, it is said in this document, which is possessed by the AFP agency.
The government order also states that the World Health Organization has not linked any country to variant B.1.617 of the coronavirus.
The WHO last week said the virus was a “global threat” as it spread around the world.
Some states have imposed restrictions on passengers coming from India since this variant appeared.
In addition to variant B.1.617, several other variants have been identified so far, initially appearing in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. The Indian government itself referred to the “British variant” as the variant of the virus that was originally identified in Britain.
The Indian government has been criticized for managing the new wave of pandemics. This country faces a lack of oxygen, vaccines, free beds in hospitals as well as medicines.
Last month, the Indian government had ordered Twitter and Facebook to remove dozens of posts where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was criticized for managing the pandemic.
India, since the beginning of the pandemic, has registered 26.2 million cases of coronavirus and 295,525 victims. Almost half of the total number of victims were recorded during the end of March.
