Consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL) said it is pausing all product sales and limiting some of its services in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Going forward, iPhones and other Apple products will not be sold through Apple Stores in Russia, and Apple Pay and other services will be limited, the company said in a written statement.
Apple is also removing Russian news apps—including the app for the Kremlin-backed news services Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik—from its App Stores in countries outside of Russia and said it has disabled traffic patterns and live incident reports in Apple Maps in Ukraine to deter the tracking of Ukrainians’ movements.
Apple is the latest technology company to take a stand against the invasion of Ukraine by cutting off or severely limiting access to its products. While Apple has zeroed in on bans within Russia, other technology companies have removed support for Russian services throughout Europe.
Microsoft (MSFT) has removed Russian news apps from its Microsoft app store, plans to deprioritize search results for the same news outlets on Bing, and has banned Russian state-sponsored ads.
Google (GOOGL) has blocked the YouTube channels for RT and Sputnik in Europe, is blocking edits to Google Maps in the conflict zone and is delisting Russian state-funded publishers in Google News.
And Facebook parent company Meta Platforms (FB) said it would restrict access to RT and Sputnik in Europe.
Apple’s actions are significant given the criticism the company has faced in recent years for making concessions to foreign governments. Last year, for example, Apple loosened some of its privacy policies in China to appease authorities in that country.