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Israel disappears from online maps run by Chinese tech giants, Omission branded a ‘a major provocation from China’
Omission branded a ‘a major provocation from China’ByGareth Corfield
31 October 2023 • 12:02pm
Israel’s country name is not appearing on online maps run by Chinese tech giants, causing confusion and anger as the country fights to defend itself from terrorist attacks by Hamas.
The name Israel does not appear on online maps run by two of China’s largest internet companies, Alibaba and Baidu. City names in the country are still visible, as are the names of nearby countries including Cyprus, Jordan and Iraq.
Social media users noted the apparent disappearance of Israel since Hamas murdered thousands on October 7, prompting surprise and anger.
Shaun Maguire, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia, accused the tech giants of deliberately omitting Israel and said on X, formerly known as Twitter, it was a “major provocation from China”.
Baidu denied deliberately erasing Israel, saying smaller countries may not always have their names displayed at certain zoom levels.
Spokesman Jing Meng said: “Where space is limited, our maps may not display the names or flags of some territories.
“Users can find corresponding countries or areas on Baidu Maps by simply using the map’s search function.”
Lebanon is clearly labelled on Baidu’s map despite having around half the landmass of Israel. The Telegraph was unable to observe the name Israel on Baidu Maps at any zoom level, although searching for the country did navigate to the state.
Baidu’s map search function appears to struggle with functions that run smoothly on Western equivalents from the likes of Google or Bing.
Typing “China” into Baidu Maps causes it to zoom into a small town called China on the Japanese island of Okinoerabu, instead of showing the Asian nation of 1.4 billion people.
Scrutiny of Baidu and Alibaba’s treatment of Israel comes against a backdrop of tensions over how Taiwan is labelled on maps.
Chinese state media criticised Google in 2005 for removing a label on its Maps product that described Taiwan as “a province of the People’s Republic of China”.
Earlier this year Beijing provoked outrage after releasing a new “official” state map that included Taiwan within its territory and expanded China’s claims within the South China Sea. Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and India all objected to the map.
Beijing has taken a more ambivalent stance towards Israel’s war against Hamas than many Western nations. It said last week it supported Israel’s right to self defence but has called for a ceasefire. Last week it joined forces with Russia at the UN to push for an end to hostilities.
Alicia Kearns, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said: “Although Beijing is trying to portray itself as a neutral broker for peace in the Middle East, it has notably refrained from condemning the appalling actions of Hamas.”
There have been calls for a crackdown on Chinese-owned social media video app TikTok over fears that the platform is becoming a safe haven for pro-Hamas propaganda.
Ms Kearns said: “TikTok is fast becoming a platform for misinformation at best, and extremist-glorifying content at worst, regarding the current conflict in the Middle East.”
TikTok has said it has dedicated extra resources to ensure “the safety of our community and integrity of our platform and strongly reject baseless claims to the contrary”.
A spokesman said: “We have removed over 775,000 videos and closed over 14,000 livestreams for violating our Community Guidelines, including for misinformation and hate speech.”
Alibaba was contacted for comment.
Israel disappears from online maps run by Chinese tech giants
Omission branded a ‘a major provocation from China’
www.telegraph.co.uk
