New Delhi, June 28
Amid a stand-off with the Indian authorities over compliance with new IT guidelines, the Twitter web site is displaying a incorrect map of the nation that exhibits Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh as separate nation.
The obtrusive distortion, which seems on the profession part of Twitter web site underneath the header ‘Tweep Life’, has triggered a heavy backlash from netizens who’re demanding strict motion towards the microblogging platform.
This isn’t the primary time that Twitter has misrepresented India’s map. Earlier, it had proven Leh as a part of China.
A mail despatched to Twitter on the difficulty didn’t elicit a response.
The US digital large has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian authorities over the brand new social media guidelines. The federal government has confronted Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to adjust to the nation’s new IT guidelines, regardless of repeated reminders.
Notably, the microblogging platform has misplaced its authorized protect as an middleman in India, changing into chargeable for customers posting any illegal content material.
On Monday, social media customers slammed Twitter’s gross misrepresentation of India’s map that seems on its profession part. The worldwide map, exhibiting Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh outdoors India, triggered indignant responses from netizens who’re demanding stringent motion be initiated towards the microblogging platform that has flouted guidelines on a number of events prior to now.
In October final yr, Twitter got here underneath heavy criticism and confronted backlash after its geotagging function displayed “Jammu & Kashmir, Folks’s Republic of China” in a reside broadcast from Leh’s Corridor of Fame, a struggle memorial for fallen troopers within the Union Territory of Ladakh.
India has issued a stern warning to Twitter that point, making it clear that any disrespect of the nation’s sovereignty and integrity is completely unacceptable.
In November, authorities issued a discover to Twitter for exhibiting Leh as a part of Jammu and Kashmir as a substitute of the Union Territory of Ladakh, as Centre lambasted the platform for disrespecting the territorial integrity of India by exhibiting an incorrect map.
Twitter’s obvious heavyhandedness has come underneath authorities scrutiny when the microblogging platform didn’t totally complied with the brand new guidelines, referred to as middleman Tips, that mandate organising a strong grievance redressal mechanism and appointing officers to coordinate with legislation enforcement.
The principles turned efficient from Might 26; and Twitter, even after the expiry of the extra time, had not appointed the requisite officers, resulting in it shedding the ‘protected harbour’ immunity.
Even within the backdrop of heightened strained relations with the Indian authorities, Twitter on Friday briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account over alleged violation of US copyright legislation – a transfer that was instantly slammed by the minister as being arbitrary and in gross violation of IT guidelines.
In the meantime, Twitter’s interim grievance officer for India, Dharmendra Chatur, has give up inside weeks of taking up the important thing function.
California-based Jeremy Kessel has now been named as India’s grievance redressal officer, on the platform’s web site – though the appointment doesn’t meet the necessities of recent IT guidelines, which clearly mandate key officers together with the grievance officer, to be resident in India.
Twitter and the federal government have been at loggerheads over a number of situations prior to now months, together with through the farmers’ protest and later when the microblogging platform tagged political posts of a number of leaders of the ruling get together BJP as “manipulated media”, triggering a pointy rebuke from the centre. PTI
