‘Misinformation on Covid’: IT Min asks social media cos to take away extra posts

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has despatched roughly 100 takedown notices to Twitter and Facebook to take away content material and posts which it alleges are “unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation” about Covid-19 protocols.
Senior officers within the MeitY mentioned the discover was despatched by it based mostly on the suggestions of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
“When the entire country is putting up a brave fight against Covid-19 pandemic, some people are misusing social media to create panic. The ministry has asked these URLs (uniform resource locator) to be removed to prevent obstructions in fight against the pandemic and escalation of public order due to these posts,” a senior MeitY official mentioned.
Defending the elimination notices, MeitY officers mentioned that whereas social media might and was getting used to criticise the federal government, search assist and even provide ideas on dealing with of Covid-19 pandemic, it was additionally “necessary to take action against those users who are misusing social media during this grave humanitarian crisis for unethical purposes”.
Apart from Twitter and Facebook, some Instagram customers additionally complained that their accounts had been barred from receiving direct messages or posting leads in regards to the availability of hospitals, oxygen, beds, medicines and different medical necessities.
While the customers claimed it was being accomplished on the directions of the MeitY, sources within the ministry mentioned it had nothing to do with the takedown.
“This is not correct. The ministry never takes such steps. (We) either block a content or block the entire account only if it violated IT rules,” one other official mentioned. Emails despatched to Instagram didn’t elicit any response.
The notices despatched to Twitter and Facebook to take down the posts categorized the content material and the customers into three major classes.
The first checklist accommodates names of handles and content material which spreads misinformation in regards to the Covid-19 pandemic by claiming it was a conspiracy, and that regardless of them by no means having used a face masks, they or anybody of their neighborhood had contracted the virus.
The second set of tweets that the MeitY wished to be taken down allegedly used outdated and unrelated visuals of sufferers and lifeless our bodies and tried to indicate them as associated to the pandemic.

Among these are tweets by Kafeel Khan, a Gorakhpur physician who had been jailed by the Uttar Pradesh authorities after he had raised questions on lack of oxygen in 2017, whereas one other one is by filmmaker Avinash Das.
The third set of tweets, the entry to which has now been blocked in India, are these which have been attempting to “create communal hatred by inciting religious passions”. Among these is a submit on Facebook (since taken down) which alleged that the vaccine being manufactured in India contained cow’s blood.
The newest takedown discover despatched by the MeitY additionally contains posts to which Twitter mentioned it had blocked entry for Indian customers based mostly on the Central authorities’s authorized requests.
On Saturday, Twitter had submitted a report back to the Lumen Database, an impartial analysis challenge which research stop and desist letters surrounding on-line content material, in regards to the motion it had taken on greater than 50 such tweets, over the previous month.
As per the knowledge submitted by Twitter on the Lumen Database, a few of the URLs whose entry has now been blocked in India, contained details about the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic and have been essential of the federal government’s dealing with of the identical. Some different posts and URLs, alternatively, confirmed footage and movies of the latest Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh that left as many as 22 police personnel lifeless.

The tweets have been despatched by a journalist with a number one day by day, a filmmaker, a Member of Parliament, a Member of Legislative Assembly, and an actor. All these tweets have been withheld in India, which signifies that Twitter customers within the nation wouldn’t have the ability to view their content material.
Though the MeitY has in its takedown notices mentioned that the motion was to struggle misinformation concerning the Covid-19 pandemic, free speech activists mentioned the federal government was utilizing its would possibly to curb criticism. Apart from the MeitY, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan too warned on Twitter on Saturday that these spreading misinformation within the state can be booked by state regulation enforcement businesses.