Published 21:28 IST, October 18th 2020
SHOCKING: Twitter shows India's Leh in 'Jammu-Kashmir, People's Republic of China'
The social media giant Twitter came under fire again on Sunday for displaying India's Leh, Jammu-Kashmir as a part of 'People's Republic of China' on its site
The social media giant Twitter came under fire again on Sunday for displaying Jammu-Kashmir's Leh as a part of 'People's Republic of China'. National Security Analyst Nitin Gokhale who was live on Twitter near Leh airport, noticed that his location was displaying as 'Jammu and Kashmir, People's Republic of China'. This anomaly was raised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) chairman Kanchan Gupta to Twitter India, stating that it was not an 'isolated incident', but that several netizens who were logging online faced the same issue.
Twitter displays J&K as part of China
Taking to Twitter, Gokhale narrated, "This morning, I was live on Twitter along with Rohit Pandita to apprise people of my journey to Ladakh from Himachal Pradesh via a new road. After we finished our broadcast, to our horror, we found that the location we had put of our location of the War Memorial, Hall of Fame - a famous landmark in Leh came as Jammu and Kashmir, the People's Republic of China. I apprised Twitter by tagging them, expecting them to take action, but except for anger from people of India, nothing happened."
He added, "We tried again by doing an experimental live with a different broadcast, but again the same results came up. Even now if you go live in areas near Leh airport, Leh's Hall of fame, it shows as 'J&K, People's Republic of China'. I do not know why this is happening, but it is my duty to inform you about it." This shockingly unpardonable development comes after the 7th level of military commander talks between India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) over 'de-escalation and disengagement', along with the return to status quo at the border.
Twitter India is yet to release a statement or fix the issue.
Xiaomi's weather app omits Arunchal
Similarly, another tech giant - Xiaomi ran into trouble when its smart phone's weather app was not displaying weather for locations in Arunachal Pradesh. After many netizens complained about the same, Xiaomi India clarified that the weather app was unable to understand data for many locations as it used 'data from multiple third-party data sources'. It added that the technical error has been fixed now.
Twitter's previous 'slights' with respect to India
This has not been Twitter's first such error with regards to India. After the abrogation of article 370, Republic TV had exposed the vicious fake news campaign on social media by Pakistan by sharing an edited video of Republic Media Network's Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami. The heavily edited video from Republic TV's The Sunday Debate with Arnab Goswami from February 24 - just ten days after the horrific Pak-backed Pulwama terror attack was shared by handles from Pakistan with malintent and with an aim to propagate ISI propaganda. While the original tweet had been deleted, several such copies were being circulated and twitter did not take action.
Similarly, Pakistan President Arif Alvi had posted out a video trying to "show" the world about 'atrocities in J&K', claiming it to be from Srinagar, in August 2019. Inspite of J&K administration clarifying it that it was fake, Twitter refused to take action against the fake news peddled by Pakistan. The micro-blogging website, in its mail to Pakistan President claimed that it investigated the fake news posted by Arif Alvi and that it could not identify any violation of Twitter Rules or applicable laws. Apart from failing to act on fake news, the micro-blogging site has been accused of condoning caste discrimination and hierarchy on its social media platform, with activists demanding equality in blue ticks- all or none.
Updated 21:28 IST, October 18th 2020