Apple boycotts Russia

After SpaceXit’s Apple’s turn to react to the war in ukraine by announcing a series of sanctions against Russia with, in particular, the cessation of the sale of products physical. This announcement follows a letter sent on February 25 to the CEO Tim Cook by Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation. He had shared the letter on Twitter.

In a press release, Tim Cook announced that it had stopped exports to Russia last week, and had limited certain services such as its Apple Pay payment solution. The American company also withdrew the apps Russian state media, RT News and Sputnik, App store outside of Russia and disabled traffic and incident information from Apple Maps in Ukraine” as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens “.

Apple also contributes to humanitarian aid

Also, in an internal email sent to Apple employees whose The Verge was able to obtain a copy, Tim Cook indicated that his company is in contact with all its employees in Ukraine to help them. What’s more, Apple supports humanitarian efforts in Ukraine and added that for every charitable donation made by an employee, the firm will match by doubling its contribution.

Apple however, did not go so far as to close the App Store in Russia, as requested by Mykhailo Fedorov. According to some specialists like Davis Kayesuch an action could be counterproductive and risk hindering the movements challenge or endanger Russian activists and journalists who could no longer install security updates or applications.