New Delhi, April 4: Social media giant TikTok would be removing accounts and videos spreading misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic in India. The video-sharing application came under fire after several misleading clips were circulated on it. Reports, citing the findings of research group Voyager Infosec, said the bulk of such videos are aimed at misleading the Indian Muslim community. Union Ministry for Home Affairs Asks States, UTs to Take Effective Measures to Combat Coronavirus Fake News.

Bytedance, the Chinese company which owns TikTok, issued a statement after taking cognisance of the reports which raised alarm over the target approach to "mislead" the Muslims of India. The firm said it would be removing all such content which pose a threat or are violative of its policies.

"We are removing such content from our platform and have heightened our moderation efforts," TikTok was reported as saying by India Today. Most of the videos which have come under the scanner have their source in the Middle East and Pakistan.

 

Voyager Infosec, which is based in Delhi, conducted a research spanning over five days amid the COVID-19 pandemic. After analysing over 30,000 videos, the group submitted its report to India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, suggesting immediate action to curb the spread of misinformation.

"TikTok, a Chinese origin video-sharing app is being used as a primary medium to create and spread videos with religious instigations against health advisories and fake information regarding coronavirus. These videos are further shared on other platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter and Facebook," the report said.

"Certain accounts peddling fake news among Muslims are promoting Pakistani religious leaders with Terror links. A further investigation into the likely role of foreign actors needs to be investigated," it was further quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 04, 2020 06:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).