Twitter apologises in writing for showing Ladakh in China

Twitter on Wednesday apologised to a parliamentary panel in a letter, stating that it will fix the issue of geo-tagging Ladakh as part of China by the end of this month and Ladakh will be added as a region administered by India as a union territory.

According to reliable sources, the micro-blogging platform sent the letter to the panel's chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi and apologised for the geo-tag error.

A joint committee of Parliament led by BJP MP Lekhi which has 20 members from the Lok Sabha and 10 from the Rajya Sabha, last month issued summons to Twitter, seeking an explanation in form of an affidavit.

"Earning and maintaining the trust of the people on our service is of the utmost importance. Twitter remains committed to serving and protecting the public conversation and partnering with the government of India," a Twitter spokesperson told IANS.

Taking strong exception to the "misrepresentation" of India's map, the government wrote a stern letter to the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey last month, 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.

Representatives of Twitter India had apologised but were told by the panel that showing Ladakh as part of China was a criminal offence.

In a separate incident, after courting controversy for wrongly showing Jammu and Kashmir as part of China, Twitter last month said it has resolved this particular geo-tag issue.

The issue was first brought to attention by national security analyst Nitin Gokhale after he went live on Twitter from the Hall of Fame, a war memorial at Leh.

The matter was later also raised by Kanchan Gupta, Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF) after tweets showed J&K as a part of China.

Several netizens also asked Prasad and the government to take action against Twitter India.

The controversy erupted amid India's border standoff with China in Ladakh.