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On Thursday, Ukraine’s State Special Communications Service called claims that the Google Maps “label” used by the Russian military was “another fake.” In a post to its official Telegram channel, the country’s intelligence agency denied a wave of social media rumors claiming Russian rebels had tagged the locations of airstrikes on Google Maps of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities.
The agency described the false claims as a psychological operation “to spread panic and misinformation among the population.”
On Tuesday, in response to claims that its Maps were used to coordinate Russian military activities in Ukraine, Google began removing user-submitted locations on the borders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The company is removing new content such as photos and business information “out of an abundance of caution,” a Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.
On the social media platform on Tuesday, people accused Google Maps of hosting content allegedly used to target airstrikes in cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv.
“A tag on Google Maps was created on February 28, and people saw that the tag matched the location of the current missile strike,” one of those individuals, Oleksandr Balatskyi, told BuzzFeed News on Twitter DM. People claim that user-generated tags, or pins, started appearing yesterday with titles such as “ФЕРМЕРСЬКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО,” or Ukrainian for “agriculture,” and “СІЛЬСКЕ ГОДСЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО,” or Ukrainian for “agriculture,” and “СІЛЬСКЕ ГОДСА ГОДСА .
BuzzFeed News could not verify the existence of a specific pin, or the claim that the Russian military added it to Google Maps. Dozens of Twitter users have shared similar images showing a pin labeled “ФЕРМЕРСЬКЕ ГОСПОДАРСТВО” in Kyiv, although it’s unclear when it was created and by whom.
After investigating the claims, Google said some of the edits referencing the farms were made more than a year ago. However, the company said it removed edits made to the map in the area starting February 24, and will pause new edits.
“Out of caution, we removed user contributions such as photos, videos, reviews and business information and all places posted by users from Google Maps in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus since the invasion began, and temporarily blocked new edits from being made, ” said a Google spokesperson.
Google also told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that it is conducting an analysis of Ukraine map data to detect and remove inaccurate business information.
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