In turn, major Western tech companies are taking steps to further isolate Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine. On the night of March 1 to 2, Apple has formalized a series of particularly strict measures against Russia, and in particular the suspension of the sale of all its products (iPhone, Mac, iPad) in the country.
Resellers of Apple products in Russia can no longer place new orders
On February 25, 2022, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transition, asked Apple to “stop providing Apple services and products to the Russian Federation”. The American Giant was quick to implement the Minister’s request. For several days already, resellers of Apple products in Russia can no longer place new orders. On March 2, the Ukrainian minister urged Tim Cook to go even further by blocking access to the App Store in Russia.
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In addition to the suspension of all its products on Russian territory, Apple has also limited certain services, such as its Apple Pay payment solution. This service no longer works in Russia or Belarus. Apple has also disabled the function allowing report incidents live on Apple Maps in Ukraine. The Cupertino company claims to be “in constant communication with the governments concerned to communicate on the measures we are taking”.
Tech companies are mobilizing
The Apple brand isn’t the only tech company to take action against Russia. Russian state media RT and Sputnik have been blocked by almost all social networks on European territory. Google and Apple have removed both media apps from their stores. Most platforms have also announced measures against disinformation. Google, for example, has announced that it has “reinforced the visibility of the most reliable media” in Google News.
Meta issued a statement in which the company reveals that it has dismantled a coordinated disinformation operation, aimed at promoting falsely neutral news pages. Twitter is the latest social network to allow the broadcasting of Russian media. The platform still displays a very visible mention on the messages published by RT and Sputnik indicating that it is about “state-affiliated media – Russia”but access to accounts was not cut off.
Unlike Chinese technology companies which do not really know which line to position themselves on, Western companies also blocked ad buying from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.