Apple Maps shows annexed Crimea as Russian – for Russian users
Apple appears to have complied with demands by Moscow to show the annexed Crimean peninsula as part of Russian territory on its apps – but only for users in Russia, Euronews reports.
Russia and Ukraine have been highly sensitive to the way global companies identify Crimea, since Russian troops invaded the territory in 2014 after a referendum that Kiev and its Western allies say was illegal.
The EU and the United States do not recognise Crimea as Russian and have imposed sanctions against the peninsula and individuals they accuse of violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Earlier this year, Russia’s parliament claimed that failing to label the Crimea as Russian amounted to a violation of Russia’s constitution by tech giants — a development first reported by Mac Observer.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, reported on Wednesday that the head of the committee on security and anti-corruption, Vasily Piskaryov, had held a meeting with an Apple representative.
According to a report on the State Duma website, Piskaryov said: “Apple has fulfilled its obligations and brought the programmes on its devices in line with the requirements of Russian law.”
Reuters reporters in Moscow who typed the name of the Crimean provincial capital Simferopol into Apple’s Maps and Weather apps on Wednesday saw it displayed as “Simferopol, Crimea, Russia”. Users elsewhere — including in Ukraine’s capital Kiev and in Crimea itself — see locations in Crimea displayed without specifying which country they belong to.
Ukraine responded angrily, saying Apple did not “give a damn” about its pain.
“Let me explain in your terms, Apple,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, wrote on Twitter in English. “Imagine you’re crying out that your design and ideas, years of work and piece of your heart are stolen by your worst enemy, but then somebody ignorant doesn’t give a damn about your pain. That’s how it feels when you call Crimea a Russian land.”
Apple did not immediately respond to a Euronews request for comment.
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