India has been fighting a sensitive war in the north, involving the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir. Sharing the border with Pakistan and China has come with its own challenges, be it unprovoked ceasefire violations along the LoC or months of standoff against China's aggression in Ladakh. But India has stood firm despite the atrocities from neighbouring countries. With all this, India is also fighting the war of fake propaganda online.
After fighting Nepal on the map issue, making Saudi Arabia understand the gravity of the situation of depicting a wrong map in its new G20 Riyal note and recently lashing out at Twitter for showing Leh as part of J&K instead of Ladakh, Wikipedia is on the receiving end of the central government's wrath. The largest digital repository of information, which works on a volunteer-based model to curate content, showed a wrong map of India on one of its pages, stirring fresh controversy.
Wikipedia shows incorrect India map
The incorrect India map is seen on the Wikipedia page for the India-Bhutan relationship. It shows Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Aksai Sin as not being part of India, which naturally sparks a national concern and controversy as the areas have long been a subject of heavy disputes. The incorrect J&K map was uploaded by a user named Mangostar in May 2008, but was recently flagged off by a Twitter user.
Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the Minister of Electronics and Information technology reportedly issued an order on November 27 for Wikipedia to remove the page as it violated the territorial integrity and sovereignty of India.
What happens if Wikipedia fails to act?
With the country's integrity at stake, the government is willing to go to any lengths, especially when its territories are questioned. India could invoke section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, which would then block access to the entire platform, banning users in India from accessing Wikipedia - similar to what the centre did with over 250 Chinese mobile apps, including the popular PUBG Mobile.
But that's the extreme case if Wikipedia fails to correct the map. As of this writing late on Wednesday, the incorrect map was still live on the Bhutan-India relations page. It remains to be seen how Wikipedia responds to this.
