Twitter at it again, shows J&K, Ladakh outside India map; may face action

Twitter has done it again! But sources say that this time the microblogging site may face government action for carrying a wrong map of India, which shows Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as a separate country.

The Tweep Life section on Twitter’s career page has a world map where the wrong map of India has been placed. Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been shown outside the border of India. The distorted map has generated many angry reactions and demands for exemplary punishment.

Sources say that the government may take strong action as this is not the first time Twitter has wrongly depicted the map of India. Twitter could face financial penalties, seven years in jail for its officials and could even be blocked under Section 69A of IT rules. Earlier, Twitter had dared to show Leh as part of China. At that time the microblogging site had to remove the wrong map of India after strong objection from the Central government.

In November 2020, national security analyst Nitin A. Gokhale found that Twitter had labelled the Indian territory of Leh in Ladakh as part of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

Gokhale, the founder of Strat News Global, had marked his location as Hall of Fame Leh. However, the microblogging platform displayed the area as a part of PRC. The screengrab of the video read, “Nitin A. Gokhale was live. Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Republic of China.”

The government issued a warning to CEO Jack Dorsey over the misrepresentation of the Indian map and later Twitter India issued an apology and removed the images and related tweets.

“Twitter is confirming by its actions the apprehensions expressed widely in the last few months about its bias towards Indian interests and sensitivities. Twitter’s mischievous representation of Indian Map is strongly condemned. Twitter has to follow the law of land,” tweeted BJP leader P. Muralidhar Rao.

BJP’s national president of IT cell Amit Malviya too slammed the microblogging platform for showing a distorted map of India. Speaking to ANI, he said, “This is not the first time that twitter has got India’s map wrong and that’s perhaps the reason why intermediary guidelines mandate that social media and tech company employees should understand the local cultural sensitivities in territorial issues. I guess it is time to realise that there is inadequacy in compliance with the law of land.”

Twitter, which is already under pressure to comply with the new norms in India, has faced severe criticism from the government along with warnings of legal proceedings for non-compliance in recent times. Twitter and the Centre have been at loggerheads over several issues for the last few months.

Amid the ongoing tussle between the Centre and microblogging platform Twitter regarding the compliance of the new IT laws, the interim Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) for India of the company has stepped down from his post on Sunday, said sources.

As per the new IT rules, the new RGO has been appointed to address the complaints from Indian subscribers.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS