Ukraine Condemns Apple For Changing Map To Show Crimea As Part Of Russia

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/11/27/ukraine-condemns-apple-for-changing-map-to-show-crimea-as-part-of-russia/#fdd87525d844

Rachel Sandler
Forbes Staff
Nov. 27, 2019

Ukraine on Wednesday criticized Apple for changing its location-based apps to show Crimea as part of Russia, implying that the company “doesn’t give a damn” about its pain, as U.S. tech companies face criticism for complying with controversial local laws in order to keep doing business in those countries.

Users inside of Russia using Apple Maps or the Weather app will now see that the Crimea peninsula belongs to Russia. One Russian user searched for Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, on Apple Maps and it displayed “Simferopol, Crimea, Russia.”

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Outside of Russia, Crimea appears on Apple Maps as belonging to neither Russia nor Ukraine. When searching for Simferopol, the result doesn’t list a country next to the city. Meanwhile a search for San Francisco will display “San Francisco, CA United Sates.”

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Google has taken the same approach. In 2014, Google agreed to display Crimea as part of Russia for users inside Russia. And now, users outside Russia will see Crimea’s capital Simferopol without an accompanying country at all.

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Apple’s handling of Crimea mirrors what Google has done in Kashmir, a region disputed by India and Pakistan. Outside of India, Google represents Kashmir with a dotted line, indicating the territory is disputed, but inside India the region is labeled with a solid black line, indicating it belongs to India.