A petition, published on Friday, is asking Apple Maps to establish the international borders between Kosovo and Serbia, as well as to mark Kosovo's name on the map. The border line that separates the two countries in Apple Maps is visually different from those used to divide the borders of other countries, thus making Kosovo appear as part of Serbia and not marking its name on the map, but only that of Prishtina. The petition entitled "Put Kosovo on Apple Maps" won close to 50,000 signatures a day after it was posted online.
"It is very worrying that Kosovo does not appear on Apple Maps. Its borders can hardly be seen and the worst thing is that it is shown as part of Serbia. That must change as soon as possible, because Kosovo has been an independent country since 2008. "
We recall that Serbia has not yet recognized Kosovo's independence, since the declaration of Independence in 2008.
If we compare the two maps, that of Google and Apple, we notice some obvious differences. First, in both maps, Kosovo's border is not the same as that of other countries. On the Apple map, there is a light pink color, which is almost invisible and the name "Kosovo" is not placed, but only Pristina, some cities in Serbia and "Serbia". This note creates the idea that Pristina is a city of Serbia and Kosovo does not appear anywhere. On the Google map, the border division is more pronounced, but with dashed lines. According to The Economist, putting a country's border on the map is done when there are "debatable" borders between countries, as in the case of Kosovo-Serbia, so it is a way of being politically correct with both countries. However, the name of Kosovo appears clearly on the map and it can be seen that we are dealing with two different countries. Meanwhile,
Recently, Palestine has had a similar problem. "Free Palestine" is going viral on Twitter, as people have noticed that the country does not appear on Google and Apple maps. In fact, since 2016, one of the Google spokespersons has stated that due to a mistake, the West Bank, Gaza and Palestine have disappeared from the map. He said Google was working to put them on the map as soon as possible, but today, 4 years later, the internet erupts for the same problem. So Google did not remove Palestine from the map, as a label called "Palestine" has never been there.
- For the realization of this article, materials were partially obtained from: The Economist, Engadget & Exit News
