Apple alteration of its phone maps to show Crimea as part of Russia is causing fury

A tech giant has placed itself in the middle of an international diplomatic crisis and provoked fury by changing a map

A simple map on iPhones has dragged tech giant Apple into an international diplomatic incident.

This week the firm complied with Moscow’s demands to show Crimea, annexed from Ukraine in 2014, as Russian territory on its apps, Russian politicians said on Wednesday.

The seizure of the peninsula helped spark a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine that has claimed more than 13,000 lives so far.

The Black Sea peninsula and its largest cities of Sevastopol and Simferopol are now displayed as Russian territory on Apple’s maps and weather apps when used in Russia.

Overseas, Crimea does not appear to be part of any country when these apps are used.

Ukraine has reacted with fury to the change saying the company does not “give a damn” about the pain of the Ukrainian people.

After Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, Moscow built a bridge to connecting it to the Russian mainland, effectively blocking much of Ukraine’s territory from the open ocean. Picture: Krym 24 TV station via AP Television

A disputed referendum in Crimea saw those who voted opt for Russian rule rather than to remain part of Ukraine. Picture: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP

Russia appears to be following in China’s footsteps which has taken a strong line with companies about how to refer to regions either under its control or in areas which it claims.

On Wednesday, a statement from parliament's lower house, the State Duma, said: “Crimea and Sevastopol now appear on Apple devices as Russian territory.” Russia treats the naval port city of Sevastopol as a separate region.

Russia and Apple had been in talks over the last few months, with the US giant initially trying to show Crimea as undefined territory and removing any mention of Ukraine, reported AFP.

The State Duma released a statement following a meeting between Vasily Piskaryov, chairman of State Duma security and anti-corruption committee, and Apple’s Russia representative, Darya Yermolina.

The Crimea peninsula circled. Zoomed out on Apple Maps there is no border shown around Crimea – neither towards Russia to the east or the Ukraine mainland to the north.

Zoom in on Apple Maps and there is still no border to Russia. But there is a regional border to Ukraine. Ukraine says Russia illegally annexed Crimea which it has sovereignty over.

In the statement, Piskaryov praised the US company, saying it had complied with the Russian Constitution.

He said Russia was open for “dialogue and constructive co-operation with foreign companies,” stressing however that Russian authorities would remain vigilant.

Russian politicians will monitor “issues concerning the protection of the Russian constitution and our country’s sovereignty from outside interference,” Piskaryov added.

Another global tech giant, Google, does not identify Crimea as belonging to either Russia or Ukraine on its maps.

It however uses the Russian, rather than Ukrainian, spelling of Crimean place names on its maps in Russia, as well as drawing a line to show the de facto border dividing Crimea from the rest of Ukraine.

On Thursday, Ukraine lashed out at Apple for the change.

“Let me explain in your terms, Apple,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko wrote on Twitter in response to the news.

“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 smb ignorant doesn’t give a damn about your pain. That’s how it feels when you call Crimea a Russian land,” he said.

Let me explain in your terms, @Apple. Imagine you're crying out that your design & ideas, years of work & piece of your heart are stolen by your worst enemy but then smb ignorant doesn't give a damn about your pain. That's how it feels when you call #Crimea a 🇷🇺 land.

— Vadym Prystaiko (@VPrystaiko) November 27, 2019

We guess Ukrainians not giving any thanks to @Apple this #Thanksgiving!

So let’s all remind Apple that #CrimeaIsUkraine and it is under Russian occupation - not its sovereignty. pic.twitter.com/GWzPwjHhsB

— UKR Embassy in USA (@UKRintheUSA) November 27, 2019

Some Ukrainians responded by calling for a boycott of Apple devices. “Let’s take our gadgets onto the square, pile them up and burn them,” wrote Igor Kravchuk from Kharkiv on Facebook.

Another, Yevgen Petrov from Zhytomyr, said: “Let’s boycott Apple and support Android, a creator of gadgets that don’t cave in to the Kremlin!”

Former chess champion and outspoken Vladimir Putin critic Garry Kasparov called on American companies and consumers to protest.

“American tech companies should stand up for the values of innovation that made their success possible, not bow down to dictators for a little extra cash they don’t even need,” he wrote on Twitter.

Google Maps also displays a regional border between Crimea and the Ukraine mainland but no border towards Russia.

EU member Lithuania backed Ukraine, with its foreign minister Linas Linkevicius tweeting: “We call on Apple to revert this ignorant standpoint as status quo has not changed in Crimea: it’s still occupied by Russia.”

But Russian politicians applauded Apple’s actions.

An MP representing Crimea in Russia’s parliament, Mikhail Sheremet, told RIA Novosti news agency that Apple “doesn’t want to lose the highly profitable and promising Russian market”.

US President Donald Trump “should follow Apple’s example and take the only correct and lawful decision to recognise Crimea’s status as Russian,” a politician in Crimea’s parliament, Alexei Chernyak, told RIA Novosti.

CHINA’S MAP DEMANDS

China has increasingly demanded that foreign companies follow its line when referring to the autonomous regions of Hong Kong and Macau as well as the independent nation of Taiwan.

Last year, airline Qantas found itself on the wrong side of Beijing by referring to Taiwan as a country on its website.

Beijing views Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), as a “renegade province” of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This is despite them having separate governments for 70 years, since the formation of the Communist regime on the mainland.

Under the One China Policy, China has claimed ownership over democratic Taiwan ever since and refuses to recognise its existence as an independent state.

A map of China that shows Taiwan (the island to the south east) as part of the country despite it having been independent for decades. Picture: Sam Yeh/AFP

In January 2018, Qantas confirmed it had amended its website to no longer refer to Taiwan as a country, rather than a Chinese territory, after China issued a warning to foreign airlines.

Qantas has done the same for Hong Kong which is often listed separately as it has a level of autonomy from Beijing. But there is no dispute that the former British colony is part of China, which is not the case when it comes to Taiwan.

The airline refused to comment to news.com.au but in an earlier statement said: “Due to an oversight, some Chinese territories were incorrectly listed as countries on parts of our website. We are correcting this error.”

Qantas flies from Australia to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai on the Chinese mainland but does not fly direct to Taiwan’s capital of Taipei.

The airlines’s move has led to some criticism on social media. One user said Qantas was “bowing to China’s bullying and petulance”. Another said China had as much right to Taiwan as Mexico did to the US state of Texas.

It’s not just airlines who are in China’s sights. The government shut down Marriott International’s Chinese website for a week to punish the world’s biggest hotel chain for listing Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries in a customer questionnaire.