Ministry of Electronics and IT issues advisory for social media platforms to curb false news on coronavirus

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Saturday issued an advisory for all social media platforms to curb false news/misinformation on coronavirus.

"Countries across the world are trying their best to mitigate 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," advisory reads.

"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," advisory added.

In the advisory, the Ministry urged the platforms to initiate an awareness campaign on their platforms.

"Intermediaries are urged to Initiate awareness campaign on their platforms for the users not to upload/circulate any false news/misinformation concerning coronavirus which are likely to create panic among the public. Intermediaries are also urged to promote the dissemination of authentic information related to coronavirus as far as possible," the advisory read.