Google and Apple removed offline navigation app MAPS.Me, government said it was dangerous

Last updated:January 13, 2025, 10:08 PM IST

India’s borders were shown incorrectly in MAPS.Me. Depicting a false map of India is an offense under sub-section (2) of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1990.

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 wrongly shown the external border of India. In December 2024, the Survey of India (SoI) sent a notice to Google’s nodal officer Priyadarshi Banerjee about MAPS.Me under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000. It was said in the notice that there are mistakes in the depiction of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh in the app.

The message now appears on the app’s Google Play Store landing page: “We’re sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.” Although the report says that SoI has sent a notice to Google, it is not clear whether the notice was also sent to Apple or not, because this app is not even available on Apple’s App Store for Indian users.

What was said in the government’s notice?
In the notice sent by the government, it was said that the map of India is being shown incorrectly in maps.me, in which the external border of India has also been shown incorrectly. This can endanger the sovereignty and integrity of India. Depicting a false map of India is an offense under sub-section (2) of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1990.

The notice said, “The Government of India believes that maps published for use in the country should contain accurate and reliable information, particularly with respect to the external boundaries and coastlines of India, because inaccurate depiction of these would violate the territorial integrity of India.” But it is worth raising questions. It is, therefore, requested to immediately block/disable the incorrect map shown in the maps.me app available for download on Google Play Store in para (1).”

Government created Survey of India
In 2020, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) created the Survey of India (SoI) as the government agency responsible for directing intermediaries to disable access to inaccurate maps of India. Acting on the information given to MeitY, SoI issued a notice to Google in 2023, saying that the World Map Quiz app on Play Store has wrongly depicted the areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.