Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the IT Minister, criticized WhatsApp on Saturday for publishing a video that featured an incorrect map of India and urged that it correct the problem immediately away. Because of this, the messaging app removed the tweet and apologized. The minister criticized WhatsApp for the mistakes in the country’s map and emphasized that “any platforms that do business in India and/or want to continue to do business in India, must use correct maps.”
Rajeev Chandrashekhar takes Whatssapp to task for tweeting a video that depicted incorrect map of India and asks it to fix the error immediately
“Dear @WhatsApp – Request that you pls fix the India map error asap”,
Chandrasekhar tweeted in response to a New Year’s-related message from the Meta-owned messaging service.
Also Read: By January 10, Tata Motors will conclude deal to acquire Gujarat facility of Ford India
Whattsapp deletes the video after it is red flagged by the Minister
The video post by WhatsApp about a New Year eve livestream depicted the globe that showed an incorrect map of India with regard to Jammu and Kashmir.
WhatsApp deleted the tweet after it was flagged by the minister.
Eric Yuan, the founder and CEO of the video calling business Zoom, had received a similar warning from Chandrasekhar earlier this week on a misrepresented map of India.
The minister had tweeted on December 28: “Your may want to make sure you use right maps of the nations you do/want to do business in.” Yuan later removed the problematic tweet.
Even in June 2021, Micro Blogging Platform Twitter faced backlash for displaying India’s distorted Map
The microblogging service Twitter itself had faced harsh criticism in June 2021 for showing a skewed map of India. After receiving negative public feedback, Twitter removed the incorrect map.
Big Social Media Companies have drawn flak over hate speech, misinformation, and fake news circulating in their platforms
Big social media companies have been under fire in the past for allowing hate speech, false information, and fake news to circulate on their sites
Government introduce stringent rules for Social Media, making them accountable to end users in one of the world’s largest internet markets
Last year, the government imposed strict regulations on social media sites to increase their accountability to end users in one of the biggest internet markets in the world. According to the 2021 regulations, social media companies must remove objectionable content more quickly, appoint grievance officers, and support investigations.
The IT regulations were further modified in October 2022 to allow for the creation of panels appointed by the Centre to settle frequently disregarded user concerns about how social media sites handled their complaints about content and other issues.
Simply said, these appeals panels will have the power to overturn judgements made by the Big Tech corporations regarding takedown or banning requests and examine content moderation decisions made by social media sites like Meta and Twitter. The government had said that the action was required because digital platforms’ “casual” and “tokenism” responses to user complaints.
The government has made it clear that social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook operating in India will have to abide by local laws and the constitutional rights of Indian users. It is noteworthy that the recently amended IT rules also impose a legal obligation on social media companies to make all efforts to prevent prohibited content and misinformation.
Also Read: Commerce Ministry aims to reduce import tax on gold to encourage jewelry export
Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘DNP INDIA’. Also, please subscribe and follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TWITTER
