On Tuesday, Apple say it is suspend all product sales and limited the functionality of some of their services in Russia in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. iPhones and other Apple products are not currently sold through the Apple Store in Russia, and Apple Pay and other services have been restricted.
The company also removed Russian news apps — including those for the Kremlin-backed Russia Today and Sputnik news services — from their App Stores in countries outside Russia, and said it disabled live traffic patterns and incident reporting in Apple Maps in Ukraine in order to prevent tracking of Ukrainian movements.
Apple is the latest tech company to take a clear stand against the Ukraine invasion — so far resulted in more than 130 civilian deaths and hundreds more are injured — by cutting off or severely restricting access to their products. While Apple hasn’t made its way into Russia, other tech companies have restricted access to some services in other European countries. Microsoft deleted Russian news apps from its global Microsoft app store, plans to strip search results for similar news outlets on Bing and will ban Russian state-sponsored ads. Google has blocked YouTube channels for RT and Sputnik in Europe, is block edits to Google Maps in the conflict zone and is removing the list of Russian state-sponsored publishers on Google News. And Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said it would restrict access to RT and Sputnik in Europe.
However, Apple’s move is particularly notable due to the high visibility of its products and the overwhelming influence it enjoys as a technology industry leader. “Apple has a lot of power. And consumers are very addicted to their products,” said Neeru Paharia, an associate professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business who studies consumer behavior, ethical psychology, and brand signals. “And so it makes sense to cut out these products.”
Apple’s actions are particularly significant in light of the criticism the company has recently faced for making concessions to foreign governments. Last year, Apple loosen some of its privacy policies in China to appease the authorities there.
Tyson Barker, head of the Technology and Foreign Policy Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations, said that because the company has played well with Russian authorities in the past, Apple’s cutting off access to products His in Russia is remarkable.
“Apple was already facing some pressure before this bitter conflict, noting that last year both Apple and Google removed the voting app by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny,” Barker said. from their app stores. Last year Apple also agree to show one more step during setup on iPhones sold in Russia prompted users to download state-run apps.
In doing so, Apple was harmed against “the company’s core values,” Barker said. “The geopolitical environment has become extremely hostile. And now, this even more dynamic geopolitical overlay makes it intolerable. “
