Google Maps denies revealing images of Russian military bases

Google has denied stories that it has made Russian navy amenities seen on its Maps service.

Deceptive rumours unfold on social media that Google Maps had revealed satellite tv for pc photos of Russia’s navy infrastructure.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces had claimed on Twitter that “everybody can now see a wide range of Russian launchers” after Google “opened entry”.

The rumours have been additionally broadly shared by Ukrainian media organisations and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s former spokesperson Iuliia Mendel.

However Google has denied that it made any adjustments in Maps to the areas which have been beforehand blurred.

“We haven’t made any blurring adjustments to our satellite tv for pc imagery in Russia,” a Google spokesperson instructed Euronews.

Satellite tv for pc photos of navy amenities around the globe are often blurred or displayed in a decrease high quality on Google Maps to guard their categorized standing.

However impartial fact-checkers say they’ve been in a position to entry photos of Russian submarines and navy bases on Google lengthy earlier than the battle in Ukraine.

The rumours got here amid Russia’s crackdown on impartial information organisations and social media corporations.

The Kremlin has accused Google-owned YouTube of spreading “false data” concerning the nation’s navy beneath a controversial “faux information” regulation and has threatened to effective the tech big.