Apple's Maps and Weather apps now show Crimea as Russian territory

[Matrix]

 

 

A hot potato: Apple has gained a reputation for kowtowing to the demands of foreign governments, usually China, but it seems Cupertino is also eager to comply with Russia. The company’s Maps and Weather apps now show the annexed Crimean peninsula as part of Russian territory.

Russia occupied and annexed Crimea in 2014, but most nations still recognize it as part of Ukraine. Now, the peninsula is listed as Russian territory, though only when searched for with the apps within Russia. In other countries, Crimea is not shown as part of any country.

 

BBC News writes that Apple has been in talks with Russia for several months over what the State Duma—the Russian parliament’s lower house—has called an “inaccuracy.” The iPhone maker suggested showing Crimea as undefined territory, but the government wanted it listed as part of Russia.

 

“Apple fulfilled its obligations and brought the applications on its devices in compliance with the requirements of the Russian legislation,” reads the State Duma website.

 

Vasily Piskaryov, chairman of the Duma security and anti-corruption committee, said Apple had complied with the Russian constitution. "There is no going back," he said. "Today, with Apple, the situation is closed - we have received everything we wanted."

 

 

Back in October, Apple removed a Hong Kong protest app and Quartz news app from its store following criticism from Chinese state media. The country is Apple’s third-largest market, which goes some way to explaining the move. It’s also removed VPN apps used to circumvent China’s great firewall, and recently removed the Taiwan flag emoji from iOS keyboards in Hong Kong.

 

Apple CEO Tim Cook has long defended his company’s actions. “When you go into a country and participate in the market, you are subject to the laws and regulations of that country,” he said in 2017. But this latest move will doubtlessly bring a slew of criticism.

 

source

[steven36]

10 hours ago, Mach1 said:

“When you go into a country and participate in the market, you are subject to the laws and regulations of that country,” he said in 2017. But this latest move will doubtlessly bring a slew of criticism.

That the problem with closed Ecosystems  , open source dont have this problem it cant be regulated by the goverment . Open Street maps still list Crimea as part of the Ukraine . Tell the world recognize it as Russia. Only Russia and there allies will recognize it unless they just changing it for Russia only , if not then it become a problem . Just like Taiwan belonging to China  is not recognized in the west or even in Taiwan they have there own goverment .

 

Apple is the most closed source Ecosystem it is . Soon if you buy a Apple device in Russia if you dont want Russian software you will have to install Windows or Linux on your Mac  . IOS is just screwed .

 

It starts with China and Russia then they censor the apps you used based on your country's laws ! Its censorship . The great thing about open source it dont matter if Google host it on PlayStore , Kodi host on there repo  or  if it's available in a official Linux repo . You can install it from  a private owned repo instead  it can not be controlled. if they block something were it want install you can just fork the software and remove the code that blocks it.  If someone gave me a mac i would install Linux on it  and if someone gave me a iPhone  or anything with IOS i would sell it .

 

Apple !  To each there own !

 

 

Ukrainian officials slammed Apple. Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said in a series of tweets that the company should "stick to high-tech and entertainment. Global politics is not your strong side. "

 

The thing  is Google do it too  they have  local versions of maps  just like they have local versions of search that  are geo locked .to your region. That the only way by law they can keep operating  everywhere  is by censoring or changing your results .

 

But the company is not alone in apparently complying with Russian demands to redraw the map of the region. Google Maps viewed in Russia also shows a border between Crimea and Ukraine. Outside of Russia, users see a dotted line marking that border, compared with a solid black line that separates other countries.

 

"We make every effort to objectively depict the disputed regions, and where we have local versions of Google Maps, we follow local legislation when displaying names and borders," a Google spokesperson said.

 

Apple and Google Maps accommodate Russia’s annexation of Crimea

https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/27/apple-and-google-maps-accommodate-russias-annexation-of-crimea/

 

Google doing it is old news  they been doing it since 2014

 

Google Maps Displays Crimean Border Differently In Russia, U.S.  April 12, 2014

Quote

The U.S. sees Crimea as "occupied territory," as the government said in a recent statement. But in Russia, Google Maps now shows the peninsula as part of Russian territory. America and its allies have refused to accept the region's separatist move to join Russia.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/04/12/302337754/google-maps-displays-crimean-border-differently-in-russia-u-s

 

Google knows if they don't follow the law they will be banned  just like there ban in China for not censoring  there search engine after they  got hacked they  stop censoring results in China. China ban them and want let them come back unless thy censor there results . Microsoft Bing never left China and censors for the Government . But the biggest Ad company in China now is ByteDance they took over the Chinese market  in just 7 years.

 

Thing is it would be hard to check the maps anymore since most VPNs  left Russia  because they wanted to backdoor there servers .

 

Mapwatch done some research on it before    you can read it here

 

MapWatch: Detecting and Monitoring International Border Personalization on Online Maps

https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gsoeller/publications/mapwatch-www2016.pdf

 

Fact is Google post it as your country  wants it's  to be seen because world politicians  and people have different  opinions that are  not realty it should posted as disputed on the maps because it is the truth . Online maps  by Big tech have become (political) maps.

 

Open street post maps as it's seen on the ground and  since mostly  Russians live in  Crimea it's  wrote in Russia and it looks like it is Russia but  still says it located in the Ukraine . Besides it being open source you can host your own instance and  you can change it to any way you want if it bothers you.

[Karlston]

Apple 'taking a deeper look' at how it handles disputed borders

Earlier this week, the changes to Apple's Crimea map were announced by State Duma, Russian parliament's lower house, describing the former boundaries as an "inaccuracy". As a result of this, Apple received widespread Ukrainian condemnation and has now stated that it is "taking a deeper look" at how it handles disputed borders.

 

Trudy Muller, a spokesperson for Apple, said that no changes have been made to the Maps app outside Russia and only Russian users have received the update because of new legislation in the country. In a statement, Apple said:

“We review international law as well as relevant U.S. and other domestic laws before making a determination in labeling on our Maps and make changes if required by law. We are taking a deeper look at how we handle disputed borders in our services and may make changes in the future as a result,”

The Crimea region was formerly considered a part of Ukraine, but Russian forces seized the territory, annexing it in March 2014 despite international criticism. Vadym Prystaiko, the foreign minister of Ukraine criticized Apple in the following tweet:

 

Since March 2019, Google Maps also shows Crimea belonging to Russia when viewed from inside Russia.

 

 

Source: Apple 'taking a deeper look' at how it handles disputed borders (Neowin)