Top social media companies like Facebook, TikTok, ShareChat and Twitter have been approached by the Indian Government to control the spread of misinformation on Covid 19 or coronavirus.
In an advisory sent on Friday, the government asked social media platforms to start awareness campaigns, remove misinformation from the platform and promote authentic information on the virus.
The advisory has urged these media set-ups to cooperate with the Govt and remove any content that might lead the public towards panic and scare. It has asked these companies to remove such content and promote dissemination of authentic information related to coronavirus.
Fight against fake news
Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which has more than 200 million users in India, has previously told the Indian government it needs support from law enforcement and civil society to fight fake news and misinformation.
Two years back, WhatsApp added a tiny "forwarded" label on all forwarded messages to control the spread of misinformation and added a limit to the number of people you could forward texts to, but unfortunately people indulge in spreading information that is irrelevant without giving a second thought.
According to the advisory, all nations are trying really hard to lessen the spread of coronavirus. However, it has been reported in media that there is a trend of circulation of misinformation/false news and sharing anonymous data related to coronavirus in various social media platforms creating panic among the public.
According to the advisory issued by the Govt of India, "Social media platforms are intermediaries as defined under section 2 (1)(w) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. They must inform their users not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, update or share any information that they may affect public order and unlawful in any way."
There were reports when coronavirus had hit China that police in China were shooting citizens in China who were infected with coronavirus; such information unnecessarily created panic among citizens and makes it difficult for the Govt to handle the situation better.
At present, there are rumors that a popular milk brand is affected and supply might be hampered, which is false and Saddam Hussein allegedly saying that US had threatened Iraq with coronavirus. These things are adding up to the panic and the Indian Govt simply wants citizens to understand that this is a pandemic and it needs to be tackled responsibly.
