Users Slam ‘Fake Woke Twitter’ as Google, Apple Erroneously Accused of Removing Palestine From Maps

Google addressed the lack of a label for a Palestinian state on its Maps service back in 2016, blaming a “glitch” for the temporary deletion of the West Bank and Gaza Strip labels, but clarifying that the company never actually labeled Palestine on its maps in the first place.

Social media users have accused Google and Apple of scrubbing Palestine from Google and Apple maps, posting hundreds of tweets criticizing the American corporations’ alleged decision to do so.

As you can see, @Google removed ‘Palestine’ from its maps pic.twitter.com/vu1xAr9NtI

— Khaled Beydoun (@KhaledBeydoun) July 16, 2020

Google and Apple maps have officially removed Palestine from the World Maps. Today Palestine was erased from the maps tomorrow Palestine will be erased from the world. PUT PALESTINE BACK ON THE MAP. 🇵🇸#IStandWithPalestine #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/zMn7EAbvBD

— ubs (@_graveyardd) July 16, 2020

Breaking: (Di jerit) Palestine 🇵🇸 is officially removed from the Google and Apple map! #FreePalestine

Apple maps Google maps pic.twitter.com/kGpwmRDTri

— ➡️ (@shahrulxr) July 16, 2020

Google maps just had the audacity to remove Palestine????? Spread the word bring Palestine back on the map!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/YhBbLK3DCQ

— Saad (@OverLord_Xd) July 16, 2020

The only problem is, the companies never “removed” anything, and there’s been a petition circulating on Change.org for years asking the mapping services to put the labels where pro-Palestine users feel they belong. Some users criticized their fellow Twitterians for jumping on the bandwagon of demanding the label ‘be put back’ before researching the issue in any depth.

Someone decided that Palestine was removed off the maps today and the rest of fake woke twitter just ran with it. Sadly Palestine was never on google maps

— ZindagiUdaasHai (@itratfatemaa) July 15, 2020

These types of tweets resurface every other year

NO, Palestine was NOT removed from Google maps today, someone decided to NOT factcheck and reduce the gravity of the issue

The awful truth is:
IT NEVER WAS ON GOOGLE MAPS TO BEGIN WITH

Which is the REAL EXTENT of the problem

— S Khadija R (@skhadijar) July 16, 2020

Pretty sure it was never there. There’s been a petition to add it since 2016 https://t.co/41ZxjdVwJo

— Melissa Kohl (@melissa_kohl) July 16, 2020

palestinians: really all we need you to do is pressure your local government or university to divest from isr-

non-palestinians: THEY TOOK PALESTINE OFF GOOGLE MAPS. THIS. IS. NOT. NORMAL. PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO BRING IT BACK

— Lived Experience PhD (شادي) (@shariaprelaw) July 15, 2020

Google addressed claims that it had “deleted” Palestine from its maps in 2016, saying it had no such label in the first place, but confirming that a bug had temporarily removed the labels for the West Bank and Gaza Strip and had since been fixed. Allegations that it had silently deleted the Palestine label prompted the #PalestineIsHere hashtag to trend.

Apple Maps was also mixed up in the furore, both in 2016 and more recently, although its mapping service doesn’t label Palestinian territories or differentiate them from Israel.

Although few users noticed it, Bing Maps also doesn’t label Palestine, although the West Bank and Gaza can be found on its map.

Yandex Maps, the mapping service of the popular Russian search engine, does label Palestine, however.

Palestine as labeled on the mapping service of Russian search engine giant Yandex.

The 'State of Palestine', formally classified by the United Nations as a de jure sovereign state, has been recognized by 138 out of 193 UN members, including most of Asia, Africa and Latin America, but not the US, Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Japan.