Is Sharing COVID-19 Messages A Punishable Offence? False Claim Revived
BOOM spoke to an official from the Home Ministry who confirmed that the message was fake.
Claim
Messages circulating on Whatsapp and Facebook falsely claim that sharing information related to Covid-19 has been declared a punishable offence. The message has been revived and shared in Gujarati, and can be translated as, "NOTICE: All the respected members of the group are informed that now any post related to corona virus has been declared a punishable offense by the central government, only government agencies can post on corona. In case of wrong post or message, entire group members including group admin will be registered and action will be taken under IT act, so be careful, be careful and be safe! Ravi Nayak, First Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India".
Fact
BOOM had spoken to a Home Ministry official when the same message was viral last year who called the claim fake. They also informed us that Ravi Nayak, the person this information has been cited to, does not exist. We also checked the website of the Home Ministry and did not find anyone under this supposed name and designation in the 'Who's Who' section.
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