The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is learnt to have asked social media platforms like Tiktok, Helo and Facebook to remove rogue messages spreading misinformation and weakening government’s effort to fight against the coronavirus.
Social media companies have also been asked to save detailsof uploaders of such malicious content which can be shared with law enforcementagencies when required.
“MeitY has said that a large number of fake/false andmisinformation based audio and video clips are being circulated on social mediaplatforms especially TikTok, Helo and Facebook. It said that such false andmisinformation based messages have the potential for creating panic and otheronline harms,” according to a source aware of the development.
The ministry in separate communications asked social mediacompanies to remove the content as it weakens the government effort to fightagainst coronavirus and the Supreme Court has also taken serious note of suchcontent while hearing a matter on the subject on March 31, 2020.
“The ministry has said that the rogue messageseffectively weaken the all-out effort being made by the India government forcontaining the spread of coronavirus,” the source said.Thereport submitted to India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre claims to haveanalysed over 30,000 videos within a period of five days. It further said thatmost of these videos have been created with professional video editingsoftwares, and originally uploaded accounts are being deleted after circulatingthem on other social media platforms.