Apple Maps, Weather app now shows Crimea as Russian territory
Following months of pressure from Moscow, Apple recently updated its Apple Maps and Weather apps to display Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia, inviting swift condemnation from Ukrainian politicians.
Russia's lower parliamentary house, the State Duma, confirmed the change in a statement on Wednesday, reports BBC News.
"Crimea and Sevastopol now appear on Apple devices as Russian territory," the terse statement reads.
Crimea, which was annexed by the Russians in a not-so-covert land grab involving military units in 2014, shows up as Russian territory only when viewing Apple Maps and Weather in Russia. Elsewhere, the peninsula is not attributed to any one nation.
Moscow has for months urged Apple and other technology companies to recognize the region as Russian territory, noting that failure to do so runs counter to Russian law. It was this argument that ultimately swayed Apple's thinking on the matter, according to chairman of the Duma security and anti-corruption committee Vasily Piskaryov.
Apple's Russia representative Daria Ermolina met with Russian legislators to verify the company's "inaccuracies" were corrected, the Duma said on Wednesday.
"There is no going back," Piskaryov said, as reported by the Interfax news agency. "Today, with Apple, the situation is closed - we have received everything we wanted."
Ukrainian foreign minister Vadym Prystaiko voiced his displeasure of Apple's decision in a tweet Wednesday.
"IPhones are great products. Seriously, though, @Apple, please, please, stick to high-tech and entertainment. Global politics is not your strong side. #CrimeaIsUkraine," the tweet reads.
Governments around the world decried Russia's aggressive move into Crimea. Political unrest in the region -- a situation many believe was fomented by Russia -- opened the door to an unofficial invasion on a sovereign nation that left thousands dead. Moscow denies the assertions, though it does admit "volunteers" assisted rebel forces in an ensuing separatist movement against Ukraine.
The U.S. and UK both leveled trade sanctions against Russian entities in 2014. As a result, Apple was forced to terminate developer agreements of coders living in Crimea.
Russia's lower parliamentary house, the State Duma, confirmed the change in a statement on Wednesday, reports BBC News.
"Crimea and Sevastopol now appear on Apple devices as Russian territory," the terse statement reads.
Crimea, which was annexed by the Russians in a not-so-covert land grab involving military units in 2014, shows up as Russian territory only when viewing Apple Maps and Weather in Russia. Elsewhere, the peninsula is not attributed to any one nation.
Moscow has for months urged Apple and other technology companies to recognize the region as Russian territory, noting that failure to do so runs counter to Russian law. It was this argument that ultimately swayed Apple's thinking on the matter, according to chairman of the Duma security and anti-corruption committee Vasily Piskaryov.
Apple's Russia representative Daria Ermolina met with Russian legislators to verify the company's "inaccuracies" were corrected, the Duma said on Wednesday.
"There is no going back," Piskaryov said, as reported by the Interfax news agency. "Today, with Apple, the situation is closed - we have received everything we wanted."
Ukrainian foreign minister Vadym Prystaiko voiced his displeasure of Apple's decision in a tweet Wednesday.
"IPhones are great products. Seriously, though, @Apple, please, please, stick to high-tech and entertainment. Global politics is not your strong side. #CrimeaIsUkraine," the tweet reads.
Governments around the world decried Russia's aggressive move into Crimea. Political unrest in the region -- a situation many believe was fomented by Russia -- opened the door to an unofficial invasion on a sovereign nation that left thousands dead. Moscow denies the assertions, though it does admit "volunteers" assisted rebel forces in an ensuing separatist movement against Ukraine.
The U.S. and UK both leveled trade sanctions against Russian entities in 2014. As a result, Apple was forced to terminate developer agreements of coders living in Crimea.
Comments
It's also not fair to make the mapping companies the bad guys. They are only trying to present information that someone says is valid.
You also see that with Israel/Gaza/West Bank/Golan, etc.
Google Maps show much the same.
Russia would just be another small economy criminal East European state, instead of a small economy criminal East European state with nukes.
spliff monkey said: Hope you aren’t planning to switching to Google — they did the same thing:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/apple-and-google-maps-accommodate-russias-annexation-of-crimea/
...because that’s the law in Russia, and they’re required to follow the law in the countries they do business in. Only other option is to pull out of Russia. Perhaps worth it, I don’t know. I’d love for them to give Putin the finger and exit Russia. But it’s silly to say Apple shouldn’t follow the law they’re currently compelled to follow if they wish to operate in Russia.
China and Russia will just continue doing what they are doing if there are no negative consequences, and Apple will apparently just keep picking profits over people if there are no negative consequences to them. So our only option is to make things inconvenient until those in power, political or business, have to start valuing human rights. Just like what was done when companies like Apple kept ignoring how the workers at the factories were treated; people made it inconvenient, and bad for business, for them to keep ignoring that.