According to news agency ANI, sources at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) stated that the Centre had asked social media platforms to remove about 100 posts for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 protocols.
The sources also said that the decision was taken in the wake of “social media misuse by certain users to spread fake information about the COVID situation in the country”.
These included unrelated, old, out of context images or visuals, being used to spread misinformation about COVID protocols.
A report by The Indian Express states that the communication sent to the social media platforms was based on "recommendations of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which flagged these Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) as “communally sensitive”.
Defending its move, the MEITY stated that this would “prevent obstructions in the fight against the pandemic and escalation of public order due to these posts”.
This comes a day after reports of Twitter complying with the government's request to censor 52 tweets that were critical of India’s handling of the second surge of COVID-19.
Previously in February, tension has mounted between the micro-blogging site and the Indian government, after Twitter refused to comply with government's request to block certain accounts over the farmers' protests issue.
The Centre had then threatened Twitter with penal action and FIRs over the matter.
While the accounts were ‘withheld because of a legal demand’ from the MEITY, Twitter had subsequently restored them within a day.
(With inputs from ANI, The Indian Express)
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