Ukrainian activists have used their notice section to try to alert Russians to their leaders’ orchestrated invasion of Ukraine.
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Ukrainian Internet users have found a roundabout way to alert the Russians to the invasion orchestrated by their leaders in Ukraine. But Google decided on Friday March 4 to block the addition of comments, photos and videos to its mapping service in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, as did the Tripadvisor platform on the listings of certain restaurants and hotels in Russia.
The hacker group “Anonymous” on Monday encouraged people in Ukraine to “explain what is happening” in the country. “Go to Google Maps. Type ‘Russia’. Find a restaurant or business and leave a review”, tweeted an account of Anonymous. For example, he suggested writing: “The food was awesome! Unfortunately Putin spoiled our appetite by invading Ukraine. Stand up to your dictator, stop killing innocent people! Your government is lying to you. Resist!”
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“Faced with a recent increase in contributions about the war in Ukraine on Google Maps, we have implemented additional protections to monitor and ban content that violates our rules”, a Google spokeswoman told AFP. The search engine said it was aware that people were trying to communicate about the war via Google Maps, but reminds that its tools are not designed for this use.