Why India is asking Twitter and Facebook to remove posts mentioning an ‘Indian variant’

The Indian government has asked social media companies such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to remove all posts that refer to one of the new coronavirus strains as the “Indian variant.” In a notice issued on Friday, the country’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) said that posts mentioning “Indian variant” count as false news. The ministry reasoned that the strain is officially known as B.1.617, so there’s no need for attaching a geographical tag to it. The ministry also wrote a letter to social platforms earlier this month to curb misinformation and imposter accounts related to COVID-19. [Read: This…

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