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How Google Maps Makes It Harder for Palestinians to Navigate the West Bank
One user told WIRED that Google Maps directed them to “drive right into a wall that’s been up since 2003.”
WIRED spoke with Buttu and four other people who have driven recently in the West Bank who say the world’s most popular navigation app sometimes leads users into traffic jams, walls, and onto restricted roads where they may have potentially dangerous encounters with Israeli authorities. Because online maps have become a primary way that billions of people understand the world around them, how tech companies like Google depict and label politically sensitive areas and territories regularly generates public backlash and philosophical debate. A Palestinian tech worker living in Israel, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern for their employment, says that last month a one-hour trip ended up taking five hours because a checkpoint had closed earlier than expected and Google Maps had given no indication that was the case.
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