Twitter shows a distorted map of India, with J&K and Ladakh appearing outside of the country.
The Twitter website is displaying an incorrect map of the country that shows Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as separate countries, despite a standoff with the Indian government over compliance with new IT rules.
The glaring error, which appears on the Twitter website’s career section under the header ‘Tweep Life,’ has sparked a massive backlash from netizens who are demanding strict action against the microblogging platform.
This is not the first time Twitter has erroneously depicted India’s map. Previously, it depicted Leh as part of China. A message sent to Twitter about the issue received no response.
The US digital behemoth has been at odds with the Indian government over new social media regulations. Despite repeated reminders, the government has confronted Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules.
Notably, the microblogging platform has lost its legal protection as an intermediary in India, and is now liable for any illegal content posted by users.
On Monday, Twitter users slammed the company’s gross misrepresentation of India’s map, which appears in its career section. The global map, which depicted Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh outside of India, elicited angry responses from netizens, who are demanding that strict action be taken against the microblogging platform, which has previously flouted rules.
Twitter was heavily chastised and faced backlash in October last year after its geotagging feature displayed “Jammu & Kashmir, People’s Republic of China” in a live broadcast from Leh’s Hall of Fame, a war memorial for fallen soldiers in the Union Territory of Ladakh.
That time, India issued a stern warning to Twitter, making it clear that any disrespect for the country’s sovereignty and integrity is completely unacceptable.
In November, the government issued a notice to Twitter for incorrectly labelling Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir rather than the Union Territory of Ladakh, as the Centre accused the platform of disrespecting India’s territorial integrity by displaying an incorrect map.
Twitter’s apparent heavy-handedness has drawn government scrutiny after the microblogging platform failed to fully comply with the new rules, known as intermediary Guidelines, which require the establishment of a robust grievance redressal mechanism and the appointment of officers to coordinate with law enforcement.
The rules went into effect on May 26; however, even after the additional time had expired, Twitter had not appointed the necessary officers, resulting in the loss of the’safe harbour’ immunity.
Even with strained relations with the Indian government at an all-time high, Twitter briefly barred IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account on Friday due to an alleged violation of US copyright law – a move that was immediately slammed by the minister as arbitrary and in flagrant violation of IT rules.
Meanwhile, Dharmendra Chatur, Twitter’s interim grievance officer for India, resigned after only a few weeks in the position.
California-based On the platform’s website, Jeremy Kessel has been named India’s grievance redressal officer, despite the fact that the appointment does not meet the requirements of new IT rules, which clearly require key officers, including the grievance officer, to be resident in India.
Twitter and the government have clashed on multiple occasions in recent months, including during the farmers’ protest and later when the microblogging platform labelled political posts by several leaders of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media,” prompting a sharp rebuke from the centre.
