Apple Maps, Weather app labels Crimea under Ukraine

Apple users may witness a small difference in their world map if they are viewing it from outside Russia. The American tech giant has now labeled Crimea as a part of Ukraine. Prior to this change, Crimea wasn’t labeled under any country. The weather app is also complying with this new change. The move comes amidst the invasion of Ukraine by the hands of Russia.

Until 2014, the Crimean peninsula belonged to Ukraine. Russian forces moved into Crimea in the year 2014 and established a pro-Russia govt. The Russian president Vladimir Putin later set up an expansive presence of the country’s army in Crimea. The UN General Assembly did not recognize the Crimean peninsula as part of Russia.

Both Google Maps nor Apple Maps labeled Crimea either under Ukraine or Russia. In 2019, Moscow asked Apple to show the region under Russian territory, at least within Russia. The American company complied. Now, three years later, Apple has decided to re-label Crimea under the label of Ukraine. This also establishes the company’s inclination towards Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Google has not made any changes to its maps as of now. However, the company did remove a feature from the Maps application in order to help Ukrainian citizens against Russian aggression. The company recently removed the indicators that showed how busy an area is. This feature can be easily used to locate pockets of people hiding from the Russian invading forces. Even other properties of Alphabet Inc. such as YouTube have curtailed Russian state media and have removed the option to monetize videos.

The post Apple Maps, Weather app labels Crimea under Ukraine appeared first on BGR India.