Snapchat has temporarily disabled the Snaps heatmap in Ukraine

Snapchat has temporarily disabled the Snaps heatmap in Ukraine. According to the statement, the rationale is to prevent Russia from learning about the regions where Ukrainians are concentrated. Google and Apple had also turned off the features where the traffic density in Ukraine was visible.

Snapchat users around the world can post their Snaps on a heatmap that shows the density of Snaps received based on location. Areas that appear in blue on the map indicate that relatively few people in the area are sending Snaps, while areas in red on the map mean that many people are sending Snaps.

Earlier this week, Snapchat announced that it would stop selling ads to Russia and donate $15 million in humanitarian aid to support Ukraine.

Other technology companies have also started to put pressure on Russia for its attack on Ukraine.

Apple announced this week that it stopped all product sales in Russia and removed state media outlets RT News and Sputnik News from the App Store. Similar advertising moves came from Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.

ACCESS TO TWITTER AND FACEBOOK IS BANNED IN RUSSIA

In Russia, access to Twitter and Facebook was banned this week. In a statement made by the Russian Federal Information Technologies and Mass Media Supervision Agency, it was stated that Facebook discriminated against Russian media organizations.

In the statement, which stated that Facebook is censoring Russian media organizations such as RIA Novosti, Russia Today and Sputnik, "It has been decided to block access to Facebook on Russian soil." expression was used.

In another statement, it was reported that access to twitter.com resources was restricted in the Russian Federation upon the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office on February 24.

In the statement, it was stated that the decision to limit the access to sites containing calls for riots, extremist activities, participation in mass events organized in violation of the established procedure, was taken as per the law on information, information technologies and information protection, which regulates the procedure.