Why doesn’t Jetpunk consider “Somaliland” a country?

Submitted by Nevson64 on March 17, 2026

I just finished a General Knowledge True or False quiz wherein QM explained that Jetpunk recognises countries if they are “de facto independent” rather than based on international recognition, i.e, why Jetpunk recognises Taiwan but not Palestine. Why then isn’t Somaliland recognised? It is most certainly de facto independent

40 Comments

Level 52

Mar 17, 2026

cuz it's not recognized by most countries

Level 67

Mar 17, 2026

Did you read all of my post?

+14

Level 52

Mar 17, 2026

nop

Level 51

Mar 17, 2026

Same reason why northern cyprus isnt recognised by jp, because only turkey recognizes it. Somaliland is only recognised by israel so its therefore not official jp country.

Level 67

Mar 17, 2026

QM himself said international recognition isn’t a factor when it comes to Jetpunk recognising countries

Level 63

Mar 17, 2026

i mean it defo is tho

+11

Level ∞

Mar 17, 2026

No, I said it's not the only factor.

Level 83

Mar 17, 2026

An important factor is stability, if it's not certain that a country will even be around for awhile than the process of changing thousands of quizzes for it could all be for nothing. Without UN recognition and backing by powerful countries it's not certain many states similar to somaliland will be around long enough to justify the changes.

Level 81

Mar 17, 2026

This is the answer. Countries in active civil war would have to change every week, otherwise.

Level 67

Mar 17, 2026

Somaliland has been around for a long, long time. Same as lots of other countries that aren’t widely recognised.

Level 61

Mar 18, 2026

Well, I have declared by house an independent country and in like 35 years everyone should recognize its sovereignty.

Level 68

Mar 19, 2026

I made my bed a country.

Level 61

Mar 20, 2026

Nice, what is it called

~~I want to start putting it in quizzes~~

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

It is truly up to the Quizmaster and not up to us.

I believe it has something to do with how much land they actually have control over. No idea after that.

(ie Palestine doesn't control stuff like border and Israel controls much of the territory, but China doesn't have direct control over Taiwan's territory)

Level 67

Mar 17, 2026

What about Transnistria then?

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

Quizmaster stated why, read his explanation

Level 67

Mar 17, 2026

Yeah, he said it’s based on “stability”. I saw that. Did you?

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

Transnistria is fragile not stable. It only takes a guy with a keyboard to find that out.

Level 81

Mar 17, 2026

Realistically, the list is just based on de facto U.S. recognition. For instance, why is Abkhazia not included, despite having operated independently for twice as long as Kosovo?

It's not totally consistent, but unless something major shakes up, changing potentially tens of thousands of quizzes on this site wouldn't be worth it.

Level ∞

Mar 17, 2026

No, it's not based on US recognition. That has never been a consideration. The US does not recognize Taiwan for example.

But, yes, it is based on stability.

In 18 years, we've never had to UNDO a border change that we've made. And we're not going to change things willy-nilly.

Level 23

Mar 17, 2026

the example doesnt rly make sense. just because you only recognized "correct" countries doesnt mean you recognized all of them lol

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

What is that supposed to mean? What are "correct" countries?

Simple question Ushuaia, how many countries are there and what makes them a country?

Level 23

Mar 17, 2026

there should be 420 countries based on no actual data and just how i feel

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

What makes them countries?

Level 23

Mar 17, 2026

they were all promised that 4000 years ago

Level 52

Mar 17, 2026

i like how you can only limit to say dumb things and jokes, lol

Level 23

Mar 17, 2026

it rly doesnt make sense to actually use intelligence against pontiac lmao

Level 52

Mar 17, 2026

nor against you LMAO. Let's be fair and use the same standard for everyone. Love you pontiac

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

~~*intensely sticking up middle finger directly at Poland*~~

Level 65

Mar 17, 2026

420 countries would be hella hard to learn

Level 68

Mar 18, 2026

I ran out of popcorn could you guys stop bickering for a bit

Level 61

Mar 18, 2026

I'm not trying to bicker. I tried asking valid questions to Ushuaia and Ushuaia went a negative direction. I guess I could ~~send you more popcorn~~ stop.

Level 68

Mar 18, 2026

guys I think ushuaia might've insulted Pontiac :thinking_face:

Level 61

Mar 18, 2026

Don't worry, a plug ugly needs to throw insults around at anyone they find a threat to their imagination.

Level 61

Mar 17, 2026

Took a picture of this so I know the next time someone asks "Why ain't [country] on here?"

Level 67

Mar 17, 2026

Wait, so why do you recognise Somalia then? Which is far less stable than Somaliland or a number of other countries