Twitter Apologizes for Labeling Kashmir Part of China

An Indian Army soldier stands guard near Nastachun pass, also known as Sadhana pass, about
MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images
John Hayward

Twitter apologized on Monday for a “technical issue” that caused the geolocation tag for a live broadcast to identify the Indian regions of Jammu and Kashmir as part of communist China.

The star of the live broadcast, national security analyst Nitin Gokhale, noticed that Twitter said the war memorial in the city of Leh where he was broadcasting from was located in “Jammu-Kashmir, People’s Republic of China.” 

Gokhale said he and his discovered the incorrect geotagging, “to our horror,” soon after they completed the broadcast.

“I apprised Twitter by tagging them, expecting them to take action, but except for anger from people of India, nothing happened,” he complained.

“We tried again by doing an experimental live with a different broadcast, but again the same results came up. Even now if you go live in areas near Leh airport, Leh’s Hall of fame, it shows as ‘J&K, People’s Republic of China.’ I do not know why this is happening, but it is my duty to inform you about it,” Gokhale added, abbreviating Jammu-Kashmir as “J&K.”

The Leh Hall of Fame is a museum established by the Indian Army to commemorate soldiers killed during India’s border battles with Pakistan. Leh is located in Jammu-Kashmir, a region more commonly known as simply “Kashmir.” Ownership of the ethnically divided region is disputed between India, Pakistan, and China, with the most heated — and occasionally violent — arguments occurring between India and Pakistan. Tensions flared in 2019 when India revoked much of the autonomy formerly granted to Kashmir, and China has become more interested in meddling in the region over the past year.

Kanchan Gupta of the Observer Research Foundation was furious about Twitter’s location tagging. He suggested the social media company might have violated Indian law:

Twitter issued an apology on Monday and claimed the geotag was an unintended glitch in their geotagging system. The company did not elaborate on how the glitch occurred.

“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 said.

Gupta insisted the incident was not a “freak occurrence,” while his online correspondents noted other instances of Twitter identifying Indian territory as Chinese. On Monday, he rejected Twitter’s explanation and apology:

Gupta complained that Twitter’s “fix” for the error involved reclassifying Jammu and Kashmir as part of no country at all.

“Twitter’s lapse led to a social media outrage, with several users tagging the company and Twitter support on Sunday to rectify the error. Some of them had even called for a boycott of the platform, a trend observed frequently in the last few months, especially in matters related to China,” the Times of India reported on Monday.

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