Chinese authorities summoned Hennes & Mauritz AB over what they said was an inappropriate mapping on the H&M website, and added pressure to the Swedish clothing brand as it disputes social media rage over its position against obtaining cotton from the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Officials summoned the company for a debate on violating Chinese law after domestic Internet users informed authorities that H&M’s website contained “problematic Chinese maps,” the Shanghai arm said Friday. of the China Cyberspace Administration, the country’s Internet regulator.
The regulator did not provide details about the alleged mapping offense, but said the H&M website operator took steps to correct the problem. In a statement posted on the social media platform WeChat, it was said that the fashion giant was told to study various Chinese laws, “strengthen its awareness of the national territory and really ensure the standardized use of the Chinese map.”
H&M could not be reached for comment immediately.
This is not the first time H&M has had problems in China over map-related issues. In 2018, it was convened to include Taiwan as a country in the Taiwanese version of its website. Chinese netizens also criticized the company for including Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet as individual countries.