Government issues notice to Twitter for showing Leh in Jammu and Kashmir, warns of legal action
Nov 12, 2020
New Delhi [India], November 12 : The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has issued notice to Twitter for allegedly showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of the Ladakh, sources in the Ministry said here on Thursday.
According to sources, the Ministry had issued a notice to the Global Vice President of the micro-blogging platform on November 9.
The Ministry in its notice has mentioned that showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir is a deliberate attempt by Twitter to undermine the will of sovereign Parliament of India, which had declared Ladakh as a Union Territory of India with its headquarter in Leh, sources said.
They said the Ministry has directed Twitter to explain within five working days why legal action should not be initiated against Twitter and its representatives for disrespecting the territorial integrity of India by showing an incorrect map.
Possible actions against Twitter can include a ban on access to Twitter under Section 69A of the IT Act or the registration of an FIR under the Criminal Laws Amendment Act, on charges which is punishable up to six months in jail.
Section 69A of the IT Act pertains to the power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource.
It is pertinent to mention that Twitter's location tag in a live broadcast had earlier shown Leh as part of the People's Republic of China, after which Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT had written a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey raising strong objections to the same.
Twitter had later tendered a verbal apology before India's Joint Parliamentary Committee on personal data protection.
However, Twitter has not yet corrected the map to show Leh as part of Union Territory of Ladakh. It is still reportedly showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir, which is against the official position of Government of India.
Notably, the Central government had on August 5 last year bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
