Russia-Ukraine: Google disables map navigation service in Ukraine
Google has announced temporarily disabling Google Maps tools in Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the country.
The software company provided live information about traffic conditions in Ukraine due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
On Sunday, the Google Maps traffic layer and its live information feature in Ukraine were disabled for the safety of local communities in the European country after consulting with sources, including authorities.
This action came after Ukravtodor, the agency responsible for Ukraine’s national road system, said it would remove road signs across the country to confuse invading Russian forces.
Ukravtodor also said it had used Google Maps to alert citizens about Russian forces on the roads. On Friday, it announced that the government had created a specialised bot system using Google Maps to report x-shaped marks that officials said were placed on the roads by Russian troops.
On Thursday, Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California, tweeted how using Google Maps helped him track a “traffic jam” that was Russia’s advance on Ukraine’s borders ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement.
(Peoples Gazette)