Ajay Sawhney, secretary of India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), on Thursday wrote a strongly worded letter to Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, highlighting the severity of misrepresenting the geographical location of Leh as part of Chinese territory.
In his letter, Sawhney reminded Twitter that Leh is the capital of the union territory of Ladakh – which, along with Jammu and Kashmir, is an integral and inalienable part of India, governed under the country’s constitution.
While sternly advising Twitter to be sensitive and respectful to India and its citizens, the secretary warned the microblogging site that any attempt by Twitter to disrespect the sovereignty and integrity of India – which is also reflected by maps – is not just totally unacceptable, but is also unlawful.
Furthermore, the letter to Dorsey mentioned that such mistakes raise serious questions about Twitter’s "neutrality and fairness ethics" while bringing it major disrepute as a platform used by over 152 million users across the world.
Issuing a statement on its mistake, a Twitter spokesperson responded immediately and said, “Twitter remains committed to working with the Government of India. We respect the sensitivities involved and have duly acknowledged the letter".
Earlier, the microblogging site referred to a "technical issue" for the incorrect depiction and said that it understands the sensitivities around it. "Teams have worked swiftly to investigate and resolve the concerned geo-tag issue”, it said on Sunday.
Twitter users in India who know about the incident have been upset with the platform carelessly misrepresenting part of the country as being in China.