As if the military tensions between India and China were not enough, Twitter somehow made a mistake that might be a little too big to let go easily.
Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir are both a part of the Indian territory but Twitter identified Leh’s Hall of Fame museum and airport as part of the Chinese territory.
When security and strategic affairs analyst Nitin Gokhale tried Hall of Fame as his location on the platform, it showed it to be a part of the People’s Republic of China, following which Gokhale tweeted about it.
This is quite dangerous and the Indian government has sent a notice to the Twitter offices seeking an explanation within 5 working days and justification as to why legal action should not be taken against the company.
Legal action here is imprisonment up to 7 years and probably even a ban on the platform in the country. In the midst of the cartographic aggression that the Chinese have always resorted to, and several Indian soldiers sacrificing lives, this mistake is a violation of territorial integrity of India.
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How Did It Come Up?
Nitin Gokhale, a media entrepreneur, said he deliberately tried Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport, which is at Leh, as his location on Twitter. He tweeted a screenshot tagging Twitter, Twitter India and Twitter Support.
This was enough to stir up outrage in the Indian users of the platform and became a national concern within no time. Indian officials demanded an explanation from the micro-blogging platform’s US headquarters and not its marketing arm, Twitter India.
https://twitter.com/SweetIfYouAre/status/1327089107214819330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1327089107214819330%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.republicworld.com%2Ftechnology-news%2Fsocial-media-news%2Fnumber-bantwitter-trends-after-centre-sends-notice-to-twitter-over-showing-leh-part-of-j-and-k.html
https://twitter.com/praveerbol/status/1327076615776391168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1327076615776391168%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.republicworld.com%2Ftechnology-news%2Fsocial-media-news%2Fnumber-bantwitter-trends-after-centre-sends-notice-to-twitter-over-showing-leh-part-of-j-and-k.html
Two hour-long discussions and deliberations took place between Twitter spokesperson/officials and a committee of MP’s of the Joint Committee of Parliament on Personal Data Protection Bill headed by Meenakshi Lekhi of BJP. Twitter was asked for an affidavit by the CEO regarding the mistake and correction at the earliest.
She reminded the Twitter folks that in these uncertain times, this action was a criminal offence. Twitter had made a similar mistake earlier, showing Ladakh as part of the Chinese territory. That matter was also brought up in the meeting.
What Will Twitter Do About It?
Hopefully, this was just a very silly mistake, silly enough to call for a ban, and the faulty geotagging will be fixed as soon as possible. If this was deliberate, then I have no words.
God help this world if China can influence social media giants to collude with them for their own expansionist plans. But let’s not think too much. We’ve seen glitches everywhere and probably this was one too.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: The Hindu, Deccan Herald, Republic
Find The Blogger: @som_beingme
This post is tagged under: ban Twitter ban, Border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, India china border dispute, India China standoff, Twitter geotag, Twitter India, Twitter Kashmir issue
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