[HN Gopher] India tells social media firms to remove 'India vari...
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       India tells social media firms to remove 'India variant' from Covid
       content
        
       Author : Pick-A-Hill2019
       Score  : 14 points
       Date   : 2021-05-22 19:59 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | syspec wrote:
       | As they should, look at the trouble caused by calling COVID-19
       | the `China virus` or `Wuhan Flu`.
       | 
       | I suspect, but cannot prove it is attributable to /some/ of the
       | anti asian sentiment we've seen of late.
        
         | loceng wrote:
         | No, racism is attributed to racists.
         | 
         | "Indian variant" is descriptive of where the variant came from,
         | nothing more.
         | 
         | Killing the integrity of language as a way to counter racism is
         | non-sense, much in line with the neoliberal wokeism allowing it
         | to be acceptable to not differentiate the use of master when in
         | computer terms in master-slave or blacklist/whitelist simply
         | because a lack of critical thinking and perhaps anger
         | interrupting or disrupting that differentiation ability; we
         | must hold the line for the integrity of language.
        
           | Jack000 wrote:
           | > "Indian variant" is descriptive of where the variant came
           | from, nothing more.
           | 
           | There are two possible interpretations of a phrase like
           | "Indian virus" 1. a virus that originates from India (the
           | country) 2. a virus carried by Indians (persons)
           | 
           | Ultimately it doesn't matter much which meaning you attach to
           | it, either one can be racist if you use it as a political
           | slogan. It's mostly the context that matters in this case imo
        
           | SheinhardtWigCo wrote:
           | When you're sitting at the dinner table in polite company,
           | I'm guessing you don't say "excuse me, I'm going to take a
           | shit in the toilet". You probably say, "excuse me, I'm going
           | to the bathroom." Is that killing the integrity of language?
        
       | neither_color wrote:
       | This is something I've personally done. I call it B1617 because I
       | thought it was bad taste when the last president called it the
       | [country] virus, or the [city] flu, and I feel Indians deserve
       | the same respect.
        
         | exmadscientist wrote:
         | The political stuff aside, please _don 't_ call it "B1617",
         | because the name in that nomenclature is properly "B.1.617".
         | The dots do have meaning and tell the history of the strain.
        
         | Red-Ted wrote:
         | People call the Kent variant the Kent/ UK variant I'm from Kent
         | and couldn't give a damn. People need to stop being so easily
         | offended.
        
         | loceng wrote:
         | So is it okay to say B1617 from India or believed to have come
         | from India?
        
           | neither_color wrote:
           | There are no hard rules to this. I just default to offering
           | Indians the same respect that I give to other countries with
           | more leverage to kick reporters out or take punitive action
           | against western media bigotry. If you feel that this is a
           | burden, then it's all the more reason you should defend
           | Indians' dignity because to do so is to force your
           | ideological rivals to live to up to their own standards.
        
       | thro1 wrote:
       | _.. in Bedford due to Indian variant_
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27250045 .. (waves?)
       | 
       | On linked picture "super-precise" _descriptions_ by BBC:
       | UK "Kent" variant B.1.1.7       UK "India" variant B.1.617.2
       | Brazil variant P.1       South Africa variant B.1.351
       | 
       | Edit: If it happen (variant with B.1.1.7 and B.1.617.2 mutations)
       | it may be called _UK "Bedford (& Glasgow ?)" variant_ without _"
       | India"_ in the description..
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-22 23:01 UTC)