Published 13:35 IST, October 19th 2020
SHOCKING: Arunachal Pradesh disappears from Xiaomi’s weather app due to 'technical error'
Tech giant Xiaomi on Sunday ran into trouble after its weather app led certain cities and states in India to disappear from the app due to 'technical error'.
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Tech giant Xiaomi on Sunday ran into trouble after its weather app led certain cities and states in India to disappear from the app due to 'technical error'. After a social media outrage that accused the Chinese company of supporting the Chinese Communist Party against India by not showing weather details of Arunachal Pradesh, the company issued a statement and claimed to have fixed the error.
'This is a technical error on our application'
"There was a technical issue in our weather app that we had identified. The same has been fixed,” Mi India spokesperson told HT Tech.
“We would like to clarify that the weather app on our devices uses data from multiple third-party data sources and we understand that for many locations, the weather-related data is not available on the current app. This is a technical error on our application. That said, we are working on improving the app to get the best experience for our users. As always, we are committed to India and our users across the country to provide them with the best possible user experience," the company had said in a separate statement earlier in the day.
Chinese companies have been facing huge criticism ever since the global COVID-19 outbreak. The anti-China sentiments have been compounded in India, due to the border clashes between the two countries in Ladakh along the LAC. New Delhi has responded by banning over 150 Chinese apps from operating in the country, a few from Xiaomi amongst them.
Twitter under fire as it shows J&K part of China
Meanwhile, Twitter also came under fire 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.
So @Twitter has decided to reconfigure geography and declare Jammu & Kashmir as part of People's Republic of #China . If this is not a violation of #India laws, what is? Citizens of India have been punished for far less. But US Big Tech is above the law? @nitingokhale @rsprasad pic.twitter.com/euelMvCxTy
— Kanchan Gupta (@KanchanGupta) October 18, 2020
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."
13:35 IST, October 19th 2020