At a time when there is a raging debate on Twitter’s continual interference in the upcoming US Presidential election where the microblogging platform has picked up a fight with President Donald Trump, Twitter India has ended up in a soup as the platform displayed the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as a part of the People’s Republic of China.
In what reveals the extent of Chinese influence on Twitter, when national security analyst, Nitin Gokhale went live on the microblogging platform from a war memorial in Leh, the location tag displayed in the video was marked ‘Jammu and Kashmir, People’s Republic of China,’ thereby causing a storm.
“Twitter folks, I just did a live from the Hall of Fame. Giving Hall of Fame as the location and guess what it is saying Jammu & Kashmir, Peoples Republic of China! Are you guys nuts,?” tweeted Gokhale.
See this Twitter! When I put Hall of Fame Leh as the location, see what it shows. I tested it deliberately.@Twitter @TwitterIndia @TwitterSupport pic.twitter.com/sGMbmjJ60c
— Nitin A. Gokhale (@nitingokhale) October 18, 2020
Gokhale urged others to do the same as a spurt of users observed that the Hall of Fame in Leh was displayed as part of China.
Here’s one more example, if you need one @Twitter @TwitterIndia @TwitterSupport. I put location as Leh’s Kushak Bakula Airport and look what you are showing! pic.twitter.com/eTpf9mac6E
— Nitin A. Gokhale (@nitingokhale) October 18, 2020
There you are. Someone else also tried it. Same result https://t.co/VfRzV3PMvu
— Nitin A. Gokhale (@nitingokhale) October 18, 2020
“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?” tweeted Kanchan Gupta, a fellow of the Observer Research Foundation.
After incessant criticisms, Twitter finally woke up from its slumber to correct its mistake. When ANI’s Ashoke Raj went live from the Hall of Fame, the periscope location came as Jammu and Kashmir, not Jammu and Kashmir – People’s Republic of China. However, this can be seen as an act of monkey balancing as even in its correction, Twitter has pandered to Chinese propaganda. Ideally it should have mentioned that Leh and Ladakh – Union Territory of India, but it would have been too difficult for the folks at Twitter to comprehend the simple fact. Twitter currently mentions “Jammu and Kashmir” and not “Jammu and Kashmir – India”, which reveals their blatant bias.
This is nothing short of treason and the government must take action against the microblogging platform.
In another incident, Chinese tech giant Xiaomi’s weather app stopped showing the weather of Arunachal Pradesh – a place which China falsely claims as Chinese territory. Only after a widespread social media outrage, did the Chinese company fix its weather application which they dubbed as ‘technical error’.
“There was a technical issue in our weather app that we had identified. The same has been fixed,” said a MI India Spokesperson.
In a statement, the company said, “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 Central government must act tough on tech giants Twitter and Xiaomi as no anti-India activity should be allowed on Indian soil.
