Last week we spoke here as a new law of Russia It could force Apple out of the country if it didn't want to give in on a very important point in its software philosophy. Now, on a related (and equally controversial) subject, we have a clear demonstration of how important the Russian market is for Ma.
THE BBC noticed that Apple recently updated two of its apps, Maps (Maps) and Time (Weather) so that they display locations of the Crimea as Russian territory. The change, however, is only valid for Russia, even users from other countries will continue to see localities as “undefined” territories, as they have been for some years.
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Apple Maps in Russia -
Apple maps in the rest of the world
The issue of Crimea is one of the great geopolitical conflicts of the present times. The peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014, and Ukraine, to which the territory previously belonged, has disputed this annexation ever since; The UN and other international entities are divided on this issue. In addition, a breakaway revolt broke out in the eastern peninsula, causing thousands of deaths.
Until the recent change, Apple remained "neutral" with regard to the conflict, without naming which country Crimea and its localities belonged to, furthermore, the strategy of the Google, which does not link the locations of the dispute to either country (but writes the names of the locations in their Russian spellings).
The change in Apple applications occurred, according to BBC, after months of talks between the company and Moscow. There were no demonstrations from Ma, but the Federal Duma (lower chamber of the Russian Assembly) highlighted the news with a short, thick note: “Crimea and Sevastopol (autonomous city of the peninsula) now appear on Apple devices as Russian territories. "
Is this another example of Apple bowing to an authoritarian government or, as they say, business is just business? Leave your opinions below.
via iDownloadBlog
