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India's borders were incorrectly showed in Maps.me. The depiction of the wrong map of India is an offense under the sub -section (2) of the Criminal Law Amendment (Amendment) Act, 1990.
India's borders were wrongly involved on MAPS.ME.
New Delhi. Google and Apple have removed offline navigation app Maps.me from Play Store and App Store. According to a report by Moneycontrol, the app has incorrectly showed India's external border. In December 2024, the Survey of India (SOI) sent a notice to MAPS.ME under Section 79 (3) (b) of the IT Act, 2000 to Google's Nodal Officer Priyadarshi Banerjee. It was said in the notice that the app has mistakes in the depiction of union territories Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
This message now appears on the app's Google Play Store landing page: “We are sorry, the requested URL is not found on this server”. Although the report said that SOI has sent a notice to Google, it is not clear whether the notice was sent to Apple or not, as this app is not available for Indian users on Apple's App Store.
What was said in the government notice?
In the notes sent by the government, it was said that the map of India is being incorrectly shown in Maps.me, in which the external border of India has also been incorrectly showed. It can endanger the sovereignty and integrity of India. The depiction of the wrong map of India is an offense under the sub -section (2) of the Criminal Law Amendment (Amendment) Act, 1990.
The notice said, “The Government of India believes that the map published for use in the country should have accurate and reliable information, especially in relation to the external borders and beaches of India, because their wrong depiction is equivalent to questioning the regional integrity. So it is requested that the MAPS.ME app available to download in the paragle play store is requested to be questioned. Let's do.”
Government made survey of India
In the year 2020, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (SOI) prepared the Survey of India (SOI) as a government agency, which is responsible for the middlemen to direct India's inaccurate to the wrong maps of India. Acting on the information given Meity, SOI issued a notice to Google in 2023, stating that the World Map Quiz app on Play Store has falsely depicted the areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
