As support for Ukraine continues to rise globally, Russia is slowly but steadily being pushed into a corner of its own. This is evident not just from the economic sanctions imposed by the West but also because of steps taken by several of the biggest companies in the world.
Apple is one of the several Big Tech companies that have stood in solidarity with its fellow tech titans and halted the sales of its products in Russia last year. Now, as the invasion of Ukraine continues to go on, the Cupertino-headquartered tech giant has decided to pull yet another service from Russia – Search Ads.
That’s right, the company has sent an email to developers saying that App Search Ads on the Russian App Store have been suspended “until further notice.” The service had made its debut in October 2016 and later expanded to other countries in 2019. In May 2020, it was launched in Russia and allowed developers from the country to run advertising campaigns on the App Store.
Nearly two years down the line, the company has decided to halt running Search Ads on the Russian App Store. As long as the suspension is in effect, no new Search Ads campaigns will be able to run on the App Store in Russia. As for the Apple Search Ads campaigns that are currently running on the Russian App Store, they have been placed on hold.
This news was made known to the masses by developers and others, who took to Twitter to share the news.
Apart from freezing sales, Apple also took steps to ensure the safety of Ukrainian citizens, such as disabling traffic and live incidents in its Apple Maps. The company has also restricted Apple Pay, removed pro-Kremlin state-controlled media outlets such as RT (Russian Today) and Sputnik News from the App Store in all markets outside Russia, and more recently, Apple Maps have shown Crimea as part of Ukraine for users outside of Russia. The company, like others, is also making relief donations and supporting humanitarian efforts in the besieged country.
