Microsoft has updated its digital mapping services to include Palestinian place names and remove \u2018misleading\u2019 Israeli designations in the occupied West Bank, according to a digital rights group. The Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media (7amleh) said in a statement that the revisions affect several location-based tools, including Microsoft\u2019s Bing search engine. Labels that previously identified West Bank locations as \u201cJudea and Samaria, Israel\u201d have now been replaced with \u201cWest Bank,\u201d the statement added. \u201cJudea and Samaria\u201d is the Israeli administrative term used for the occupied West Bank. However, under international law, the territory \u2014 including East Jerusalem \u2014 is considered occupied Palestinian land and is widely viewed as part of a future Palestinian state. 7amleh described the update as a \u201cnecessary correction,\u201d with advocacy manager Lama Nazeeh urging technology companies to comply with international law and avoid contributing to what she called the \u201cdigital erasure of Palestinian geography.\u201d A check of Bing maps showed that Microsoft has indeed adopted \u201cWest Bank\u201d as the label for the territory. The company has not yet issued an official statement on the change. The report said that the update comes amid broader scrutiny of how global technology firms present geographic data in conflict zones, particularly in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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