Twitter shows J&K as part of China in location tag for live broadcast, company responds

Twitter was spotted showing Jammu and Kashmir as part of the People's Republic of China for a live broadcast from Leh, Ladakh.

Twitter location tag blunder

Update: Twitter has issued a statement on the same.

We became aware of this technical issue on Sunday, and understand and respect the sensitivities around it. The teams have worked swiftly to investigate and resolve the concerned geotag issue," a Twitter spokesperson told Hindustan Times.

Twitter is in the soup for showing Jammu and Kashmir as part of the People's Republic of China, and not India. This was highlighted by Nitin Gokhale, National Security Analyst who spotted it while going live on Twitter from Leh, Ladakh.

Gokhale tweeted about going live from the Hall of Fame museum located in Leh. Once the live broadcast was over he tweeted saying that the location for the live video showed Jammu & Kashmir, People's Republic of China. Gokhale added that despite adding Hall of Fame, Leh as the location, Twitter automatically pins it to China.

“Twitter folks, I just did a live from Hall of Fame. Giving Hall of Fame as the location and guess what it is saying Jammu & Kashmir, Peoples Republic of China! Are you guys nuts?” Gokhale tweeted.

See this Twitter! When I put Hall of Fame Leh as the location, see what it shows. I tested it deliberately.@Twitter @TwitterIndia @TwitterSupport pic.twitter.com/sGMbmjJ60c

— Nitin A. Gokhale (@nitingokhale) October 18, 2020

Gokhale tried testing out the live broadcast again and it still showed J&K as part of China. He also urged other Twitter users to test it out and see for themselves. Following his tweet, there were more Twitter users posting screenshots of the same location blunder.

The outrage has naturally caused an uproar given the ongoing border tensions between India and China. We have reached out to Twitter, and will update the story once we receive the statement.