Apple Suspends Product Sales In Russia & Limits Access To Their Digital Services
Apple has stopped the selling of their products and limited the access to their digital platforms in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As Russia continues to invade Ukraine, big corporations have been taking a stand to showcase their disapproval of their actions, and the latest to do so is Apple.
According to CNN, on Tuesday, the company announced that they have paused selling their products in Russia as they expressed their concerns about Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. They also said that they have limited access to their digital services, such as Apple Pay. The company has also limited the availability of Russian state media applications outside the country.
Apple said in their statement, “Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited. RT News and Sputnik News are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia. And we have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.”
Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov also encouraged Apple to block access to their app store in Russia.
Apple’s decision comes on the heels of other companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, placing limits on sharing the news coming from Russian outlets. Netflix has also refused to air Russian state TV channels in the country.
As previously reported, Russia’s invasion into Ukraine first began last week when Russian President Vladimir Putin first announced that he “decided to conduct a special military operation” in order to protect the eastern region of Donbas in Ukraine. Since the start of the operation, the world has seen the effects of the mission, which has resulted in various casualties and has left civilians trying to flee Ukraine in order to get to safety.