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Can Social Media Companies Scrub Any Mention of 'Indian Variant'?

The World Health Organization identified the variant as B.1.617 and deemed it as a variant "of concern" last week.

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The Government of India on Friday, 21 May, asked all social media platforms to remove posts which refer to the ‘Indian variant’ of the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) identified the variant as B.1.617 and classed it as a variant "of concern" last week.

This latest push by the Indian government to censor content from social media comes amid criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of the crisis triggered by the second wave of the COVID-19.

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What Did The Government Say?

The letter was sent on Friday 21 May, duly signed by Rakesh Maheshwari, Group Coordinator.

The letter read, “It has come to our knowledge 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 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."

The letter was written in response to several media reports which termed the specific B.1.617 variant as Indian.

The letter further said “All social media platforms to remove all the content that names, refers to, or implies ‘Indian variant' of coronavirus from your platform immediately”.

Is It Illegal to Call It An 'Indian Variant'?

It is not illegal to call this variant of the coronavirus the 'Indian variant', according to a legal expert. "Countries in general are very sensitive to these descriptions and India is no different."

Nikhil Padhwa, Founder of Medianama, said that there is nothing patently illegal about calling this variant of the coronavirus the 'Indian variant'.

"Calling it an Indian variant is a colloquial reference, not fake news. Connaught Place is officially Rajiv Chowk, but nothing stops people from calling it Connaught Place," he adds.

It is worth noting that India has referred to other variants as UK, Brazil, South African variants.

A Twitter user Aditya Kalra pointed out that the Indian government has been using unofficial terminology in press releases.

  • A google search reveals that Indian government had called the strain  first identified in UK as 'UK strain'.

    (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/ Aditya Kalra)

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Can Social Media Platforms Censor 'Indian Variant' Keyword?

It is possible for social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to comply with the Indian government's request.

A social media executive on the condition of anonymity told The Quint that while it is possible to censor any keyword out by using simple filters, removing mentions from thousands of such posts will lead to 'keyword censorship'.

The Quint asked the executive if this move might affect the freedom of the press. He replied, "Several international media organisations including BBC, Al Jazeera, Telegraph, Sky News, Voice of America, and The Guardian, have been calling this variant as 'Indian variant'. Removing these news items from the platforms amounts to mass censorship of news."

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Similar Curbs Issued Earlier

On Saturday, 24 April, reports said that the micro-blogging website Twitter had censored over 50 tweets that criticised the Modi government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

A review of the tweets, now withheld from viewing within India, shows that most of them only highlighted the issues India is facing amid the deluge of COVID-19, and criticised the government’s handling of the crisis.

Twitter’s filings with the Lumen database, a Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Centre initiative, indicated that the request to block these tweets came from the Centre.

The tweets included hashtags calling for the resignation of PM Modi and others comparing the handling of the Tablighi Jamaat controversy in light of the recent Maha Kumbh Mela pilgrimage, which has resulted in more positive cases, further pressuring India’s already burdened healthcare infrastructure during the second wave of the COVID pandemic.

Over 12,000 posts calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Facebook were blocked.

Several noticed that the hashtag #ResignModi had been blocked on Facebook and any Indian netizen looking for the hashtag was flashed with a notice saying that such posts had been “temporarily hidden here” as some content in those posts went against the website’s “Community Standards.”

While Facebook later restored the hashtag and said that it was removed “by mistake,” the Centre issued a statement saying that no such order was given by it to the social media giant.

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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