Discussion
Apple Maps
creddit: Currently 50 points and is just a link to Apple Maps with an unverified claim.
jjtheblunt: Apple maps used (last i knew) Scala to import externally sourced map datasets continuously, and those may have lost towns and villages in Lebanon.
aduffy: I don't understand what using Scala has to do with anything here.
thepasswordis: This is amid an ongoing bombing campaign by Israel which is primarily targeting civilians.
threethirtytwo: Are they just keeping up to date? The bombed town no longer exists so they update the map.
mirzap: Those cities will be rebuilt after the war. This is not excuse for what Apple did, it is justification for ethnic cleansing and occupation. Same as with Gaza City. It existed for 3500 years, it will be rebuilt and it will outlive the US/Israel for sure.
antihero: What purpose would this serve in any way?
aduffy: This reminds me a bit of the Gulf of America fiasco from last year where if you changed your location to outside the US it would go back to showing Gulf of Mexico.I'm not sure why they would do this for US users unless the US government requested it.
oa335: Any justification given by Apple?
johndevor: We all know why, but we're too scared to say.
formerly_proven: They might genuinely not exist any more. The world's attention was heavily distracted by the campaign in Iran and the Hormuz strait while Israel never stopped doing their ...stuff... in Lebanon.
amarant: And if they do, they probably don't want to be found
colechristensen: Apple does much of their own mapping but they also rely quite a bit on external data sources, whichever one of those they use probably dropped the data for one reason or another.
alexander2002: Are you for real?
Chance-Device: This saddens me and I don’t understand why it is allowed to continue.And I’m not just talking about Apple Maps.
threethirtytwo: How is removing a city from a map a some sort of sign that apple did it for malicious reasons?
walletdrainer: Of course it’s a deliberate political signal from Apple.
threethirtytwo: What is the signal? Not snark, I’m not well informed and I need it spelled out.
foxfired: You can look up Maroun Al-Ras [0] and it's map coordinate [1]. If you search for the name, you find a garden of the same name, but not the village. The instagram reel that was posted earlier had more context [2].[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroun_al-Ras[1]: https://maps.apple.com/frame?center=33.107500%2C35.444722&sp...[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47742363
boramalper: > The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.You can open the link and see it for yourself; what other "verification" do you need?
quantummagic: How did you verify that they previously existed on the Apple maps?
neya: Why, because Apple can't do any wrong?
mikert89: Israel is really out there just killing everyone in the middle east
ryandrake: Dark humor but it almost seems like Israel is using Apple Maps as a checklist.
jampekka: This is sadly not that far fetched."The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations.""The demolitions came after Israel’s minister of defence, Israel Katz, called for the destruction of “all houses” in border villages “in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza” to stop threats to communities in northern Israel. The Israeli military destroyed 90% of homes in Rafah, in south Gaza."https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/12/how-israeli-of...
throwaway132448: What’s the point in sharing these articles on HN, when the comment section shows they are clearly just used as an excuse for people to vocally confirm their own biases?
Bengalilol: This is not an article, but a link to Apple Plans/Maps where you can observe all locations have been removed. As for now, it is hard to conclude anything but this looks like a bug (I know I am being optimistic).
contingencies: Apple: 1984 as a service. "We know walled gardens."Quick: someone do the graphic, you can sell merch. Mail a freebie and a purchase link to every makerspace on the planet.I hope Woz tells them this is Not OK with a capital NO.
dryarzeg: This saddens me as well, because that's the type of thing that happens every day where I live, but...> I don’t understand why it is allowed to continue.The answer is even sadder. It's even worse. And it is as follows: because there's not enough people who are taking action, and from those taking action there's not enough people in power to change something significantly. At least that's how I see it. And... I can't even blame those who don't take action - because many people feel completely powerless, they feel like "what you can do to stop this war/other thing if you're just a regular human?"
bertil: Satellite source would require detailed editing, and there’s very little chance those are fully automated. The entire Middle-East is being blocked, but only Lebanon is being affected.It could be that they have a provider in Lebanon that was bombed but I’ve never heard of a cartographer with local dependencies like that.
cozzyd: Surely they could just... Leave what they used to have?
creddit: Do you know what the word "removed" means?
neya: They did the same thing when there was a war between India and China a while ago. As brutal as it sounds, time and again Apple always loves to be on the side of whichever market is bigger. It's really that simple (business wise). Morally? Perhaps not.
aduffy: It is straightforward to visit any other online mapping service and see many villages labeled there.Bing: https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=33.185932%7E35.321974&lvl=11.9&...Google: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.1649913,35.2506666,11.55zOSM: https://www.openstreetbrowser.org/#map=11/33.1554/35.2890
creddit: Removed means they were there before which means comparison to other maps means nothing. It's possible Apple never had them in the first place. It's completely unverifiable with the link or your links.
throwaway132448: It must be hard being so repressed.
bigyabai: It's certainly not made easy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws
stri8ted: Entire segments of the podcast sphere are making their money talking about these so-called unspeakable subjects. Why don't you share what you really think.
Legend2440: Yeah true, how do we know these bridges and towns were there beforehand? Maybe Apple has never had good coverage in this area.Just linking to a map doesn't tell us what was removed or when.
creddit: Careful if you care about your karma, if you use logic and state true things, you will lose it for not submitting to the political hive mind on HN.
deadbolt: Yeah and if you say it, your comment gets flagged just like this post has been.
nairboon: Why do you say unverified? You can activate the hybrid satellite view and look around. There are many towns and cities showing up on satellite view without any label. That's easily verifiable.
creddit: Do you know what the word "removed" means?
johndevor: You're right. Israel and the Jews.
ryandrake: This kind of innuendo adds nothing of value to the conversation. Either say what you intend to say, or just don't post. The coy "I know something but can't say it" is silly and just sounds like you have a persecution complex.
johndevor: You're right. Israel and the Jews. There.
Chance-Device: This goes beyond direct action by individuals, it’s completely obvious what’s happening and it happens because the US political system has been captured.
bdangubic: US government demanded it, not requested it
politelemon: There is no perhaps.
bertil: You can very easily verify the claim by following the link. Other than three major cities, there are no agglomeration listed in Lebanon. Other countries have detailed maps.
creddit: Actually I can't because I've never seen if Apple ever had them in the first place.
bertil: It sounds like a great opportunity to ask if people have used Apple Maps in Lebanon before.
creddit: Is anyone stopping you from doing that? Do you need my permission? If so, granted. I think you should spend whatever effort you want to verify claims if you believe that would be of value.
jjtheblunt: yeah Scala doesn't matter, just thought that was interesting as a "factoid"
nutjob2: > I'm not sure why they would do this for US users unless the US government requested it.Because the US govt. is petty and vindictive at the moment.
Pay08: They gave up the pretense much easier than I thought they would.
Pay08: Captured by whom?
daneel_w: I believe OP is asking for a before/after of Apple Maps, because just seeing the map now isn't telling us whether Apple previously disclosed the villages and towns. I'm sure OP isn't thinking that the region is full of random roads out in the wilderness leading to nothing, which is the wrong conclusion the downvoters are probably leaping at.
creddit: Correct
walletdrainer: The bulk of Israelis want to annex this territory and use it as an empty buffer zone, exterminating everyone who refuses to leave.
microtonal: Associated Press was even banned from the White House for calling it the Gulf of Mexico: https://www.ap.org/the-definitive-source/announcements/ap-st...
walletdrainer: It’s not allowed to criticise Israel because most Jews are lunatics that consider such criticism an antisemitic attack on their person, regardless of what actual ties they may have to the country.
jampekka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Fore...
jampekka: There's also a huge cost for taking action about this especially in the US. You can easily get thrown out of school, have your career destroyed or be deported.
karmakurtisaani: Please don't post reddit style garbage comments like this.
walletdrainer: Just check literally any Lebanese social media site?
bertil: You are assuming I didn’t know before this news came out.
boramalper: You’re being pedantic because you know it’s likely true.
AdmiralAsshat: 129 points in 2 hours, and this article mysteriously disappears from the front page of HN.You who intentionally hide this information are complicit in genocide.
dvfjsdhgfv: This is quite normal for politics-related news on HN. Many people flag them and they disappear from the FP. Whatever contentious issue you take, there always people who will dislike an even or how it's presented and will flag the submission.
replooda: Posts such as yours — "most jews..." — help push forward the narrative that anyone critical of them is antisemitic.
cr125rider: How much do they rely on OSM these days? They were a TomTom shop, that was obviously horrible, then were OSM based. Is that still the case?
munib_ca: Why is this flagged?
