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Parliamentary Panel Members Grill Twitter Officials For Its ‘Unlawful’ Act Of Showing J&K As Part Of China
Swarajya Staff
Oct 28, 2020, 05:14 PM | Updated 05:14 PM IST
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A Joint Committee of Parliament on Wednesday (28 October) grilled four representatives of Twitter for around two hours on the map row after they appeared before the panel.
Opposition members led the charge as the BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi-led panel questioned the social media platform's representatives as to why Ladakh was shown as a part of the People's Republic of China.
The committee members were not satisfied with the explanation given by Twitter representatives that included Shagufta Kamran and Pallavi Walia, sources said.
Earlier, taking a strong exception to the "misrepresentation" of India's map, the government wrote a stern letter to the Twitter CEO, saying that any attempt by the platform to disrespect the sovereignty and integrity of India, which is also reflected by the maps, was totally unacceptable and unlawful.
The joint committee has 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha.
It should be noted that the present issue came to light when multiple social media users on 18 October cornered Twitter after it appeared to be showing Jammu and Kashmir as part of China.
Senior defence journalist Nitin Gokhale in a tweet said that when he entered his live broadcast location as Leh in the hall of fame feature twitter displayed his location as, "Jammu and Kashmir, People's Republic of China".
Gokhale also informed that he had retested the said feature and twitter was still showing the location as "Jammu and Kashmir, People's Republic of China".
Soon other twitter users also replied to Gokhale that they were seeing a similar display message with regards to the location.
It should be noted that Twitter has in the past been slammed for showing Jammu and Kashmir as part of China and Pakistan on its platform. In one case Twitter was caught displaying the location of tweets as "Jammu And Kashmir, People’s republic of China".
Its officials back then had called it a tech issue and had promised to get it fixed.
With IANS Inputs
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