Centre Issues Notice to Twitter Over Showing Leh as Part of J&K

The notice asks Twitter to respond in five days, explaining why legal action should not be initiated against them.

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The Ministry of Electronics & IT has issued a notice to Twitter on 9 November for reportedly showing Leh as part of J&K instead of the Union Territory of Ladakh, ANI reported on Thursday, 12 November.

According to ANI, the notice has asked Twitter to respond in five days, explaining why legal action should not be initiated against them for “disrespecting India’s territorial integrity”.

Twitter has reportedly responded to the notice, saying that it “remains committed to partnering with Government of India and the Ministry of Electronics & IT to serve the public conversation.” According to ANI, a Twitter spokesperson said that the platform has shared “a comprehensive update with latest developments regarding the geo-tag issue.”

In October, Twitter had showed the geo-location of Leh in Ladakh as a part of the People’s Republic of China. Then too, Electronics & IT Ministry Secretary Ajay Sawhney had written to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey conveying “strong disapproval of the government over misrepresentation of India's map.”

Several had called out the social media giant over the misrepresentation, following which, Twitter had issued a statement.

“We became aware of this technical issue on Sunday, and understand and respect the sensitivities around it. Teams have worked swiftly to investigate and resolve the concerned geotag issue,” a Twitter spokesperson had said.

Twitter had also tendered a verbal apology for the error later in October, before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted to review the data protection bill.

However, the ANI report on Thursday said that while Twitter had rectified the error, it had not yet corrected the map to show Leh as part of Union Territory of Ladakh.

(With inputs from ANI.)