Although it may seem incredible, Google Maps continues to show the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla as disputed territories, showing their borders with dashed lines.
Google Maps is the map service developed by Google that right now is giving a lot to talk about in Spain. The reason is that it turns out that the platform is questioning the ownership of Ceuta and Melilla, and represents them as disputed territories with dashed lines.
It is important to mention that the Google maps application draw the borders with these dashed line shapes, in some cases to reflect the contested or unrecognized nature of certain regions or territories of the world.
Google Maps shows a neutral representation of these disputed areas and acknowledges that there are multiple claims at stake.. A clear example is Crimea, a peninsula disputed by Ukraine and Russia, which appears with dashed lines as the currently disputed territory that it is.
In this way, the Google platform considers that territories, such as Ceuta and Melilla, are being disputed between Spain and Morocco. The truth is that The Spanish State has exercised its sovereignty over both autonomous cities for more than 500 years.
Why do Ceuta and Melilla appear as disputed territories on Google Maps?
As we can read in Ceuta al Día, the discontinuous line between the borders of Morocco and Spain is not an error in Google Maps, but rather a function integrated into the platform where it allows the request of any country in the world to be annexed. the domains you claim.
This way, Morocco clearly made a formal request to Google Maps stating that it is not happy with its current limits., and affirms that the extension of its territory includes up to the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Very kindly, Google maps granted the request and that is why both territories are listed as disputed.
It is important to mention that this is a function integrated into the map service of the American company, where it allows you to make these types of modifications. For their part, other similar platforms, such as Apple Maps or Microsoft Maps does include both autonomous cities as 100% Spanishand drawn with continuous lines.
Ceuta and Melilla have been part of Spain for hundreds of years, half a millennium to be exact, but have been claimed by Morocco since its independence in 1956. It should be noted that, under international law, both are not considered colonies, but are recognized as Spanish provinces.
In addition, the United Nations Organization, better known as the UN, supports this position and widely recognizes Spain’s sovereignty over these two territories.
