Palestine has been allegedly removed from the world map by tech giants Google and Apple, sparking an uproar among Twitter users across the globe.
Although Google claims that there never was a Palestine label on its maps, the matter has social media fuming. A number of Twitter trends including #Palestine, #FreePalestine, #Israel, and #WeRejectWorldMap are being used by users to voice their concerns on the illegal occupation of the Middle-Eastern country.
This is not the first time Palestine’s erasure from the world map has irked the Muslim world. The United States of America does not recognize Palestine as a country and has its embassy in Israel instead. Both the tech companies, Google and Apple, are headquartered in the US, which explains why searching out Palestine on Google Maps or Apple Maps returns only Israel. Although the territory appears confined in a dotted line much like Kashmir, albeit without the label.
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“There has never been a ‘Palestine’ label on Google Maps, however, we discovered a bug that removed the labels for ‘West Bank’ and ‘Gaza Strip’”, a Google spokesperson said in response to a controversy in 2011.
Social media users have denounced the move as highly disrespectful. Let’s have a look at what people are saying:
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