Government of India has reportedly asked TikTok and Facebook to remove misinformation spread about coronavirus or COVID-19. According to Reuters report, the letter has been written to Facebook and Chinese video app TikTok to remove users found to be spreading this misinformation.
It is been noted that the government has especially asked Facebook and TikTok to remove those videos that are spreading misinformation intended to mislead Muslims about the coronavirus. The move has come after a report by Delhi-based digital analytics firm Voyager Infosec. The study highlights a pattern of targeted disinformation in many social media videos specific to Muslim community.
For example, one the video reviewed by Reuters on April 7, a TikTok user says he is not scared of the coronavirus because, as a Muslim, he is a follower of the Prophet Mohammed and fears only Allah. On the similar line, one another video showed a young man throwing away the face mask to put on a Muslim skull cap, and makes a gesture of praying.
These concerns about such content has reportedly forced India’s IT ministry to write to TikTok and Facebook on April 5, Reuters quoted the government source.
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Meanwhile, WhatsApp has taken further steps to make it difficult to spread misinformation about coronavirus pandemic. On Tuesday, the Facebook-owned social messaging platform announced that it would place new limits on the number of forwarded messages. WhatsApp said it will also identify that the “highly forwarded” can only be forwarded to a single person. This number is identified by seeing whether a message has been sent through a chain of five or more people.
