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1456 points pulisse | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.247s | source
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peterkelly ◴[] No.21183239[source]
This reminds me of the story about how the first release of Windows 95 was banned in India because 8 pixels of the map shown in the timezone selection control panel were colored in such a way that suggested parts of Kashmir were part of Pakistan.

https://www.cnet.com/news/how-eight-pixels-cost-microsoft-mi...

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20030822-00/?p=42...

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behnamoh ◴[] No.21183342[source]
Man that's crazy! They must've paid real close attention to it, but I think it's partly due to low resolution screens available in circa 1995. On a low-res screen, it's impossible to draw maps completely according to the borders, so this was probably inevitable and unintentional.
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pradn ◴[] No.21183455[source]
Inside Microsoft, there's a whole database of geopolitically-sensitive issues that have been accrued over the years. You can see all sorts of border disputes and differences in language that you had to take into account when working on global products.

On a related note, now you have movies with different scenes in China.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the_extra_looper_scenes_y

https://kotaku.com/why-many-in-china-hate-iron-man-3s-chines...

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1. RandallBrown ◴[] No.21183842[source]
During my time at Microsoft I submitted a code review with an updated mapping library we got from a 3rd party. The auto review bot flagged the the changes with a "Geopolitical Issue" or something like that. Turned out it was an icon for Taiwan's flag.

I don't remember if we deleted the icon or just renamed it, but the product never ended up shipping, so it probably doesn't matter much.