Twitter goofs up; shows Jammu in Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir in China

In a major goof-up, popular social media platform Twitter on Thursday showed Jammu as part of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir  as being in China in its location-tagging service -- drawing flak from its own users.

Twitter, which is very popular among politicians, government leaders and others seeking to spread their views, also identified Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) as 'Azad Kashmir' province of Pakistan. Left red-faced over the faux pas, Twitter's India office said the problem has been identified and it will be resolved soon.

The government on its part said the matter will be taken up with the micro-blogging site. "I am sure this will be taken up," External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup told reporters. While posting a new tweet, Twitter gives an option to the user to tag his or her location, wherein the microblogging site was on Thursday found to be showing Jammu as being part of Pakistan. Besides, a user seeking to tag Jammu and Kashmir as the location was being shown the option of this place being in 'People's Republic of China'.

The development created a flutter among Twiterrati, a term used for frequent users of this platform, and large number of the users criticised Twitter for the goof-up, with some terming it being biased against India.

Several ministries and departments of the government including the President's Secretariat and Prime Minister's Office have been using Twitter to communicate with the people. Prominent politicians, cine stars and blue-chip companies of the country have also been using this platform.

Incidentally, Twitter had shot into prominence in India after a major controversy over former Congress Minister Shashi Tharoor's "cattle class" tweets, which he had apparently used for economy class air travel.