Apple Maps is facing another controversy as social media points to alleged removal of sites in Lebanon, but Apple says it never listed them.

Apple Maps had a controversial start over getting locations wrong, and it's more recently been used to reveal troop movements in Russia. But now that Israel is invading southern Lebanon, Apple Maps is accused of removing village and town names from the region.

The repeated accusation is that Apple is in some way complicit with Israel, and it is removing place names as part of justifying occupation. However, as also noted in the example X post, Apple has told Wired Middle East that the accusations are entirely false.

"We are aware that some outlets have incorrectly reported that certain village and town names in Lebanon were removed from Apple Maps," Apple said. "These locations have never been featured."

Digital mapping is a far more complex operation that it appears. So for instance, while it is undeniably true that Google Maps shows more detail in southern Lebanon than Apple Maps, where the two match, Google even spells names differently.

Sidebyside digital maps of Tyre, Lebanon, showing coastline, highways, city streets, hospitals, beaches, Tyre Coast Nature Reserve, and Tyre World Heritage Site labels along the Mediterranean Sea

Apple Maps (left) showing fewer details than Google Maps (right). But note that each service presents different levels of detail depending on zoom

Where Apple shows Tyr, Google calls it Tyre and autocorrects all searches to that spelling. Where Apple Maps shows Akko, a search for that on Google Maps routes instead to The Old City.

In at least these examples, Google Maps better reflects how locals refer to these places, but naming is also inconsistent. That's despite there being international conventions on these toponyms.

Without the ability to scroll back to previous instances of Apple Maps in Lebanon, it's not possible to prove that Apple is right about it not removing place names. But Apple Maps is clearly poorer than Google Maps in the region.

Reportedly, the Apple Maps spokesperson also said that it has yet to launch its latest and more detailed version of Apple Maps in the country.