SoylentNews

Apple Capitulates, Removes Unlicensed VPN Apps From China App Store

posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 31 2017, @08:41AM   
from the sideloading-anyone? dept.

takyon writes:

Apple has removed major VPN apps from its mainland China app store:

China appears to have received help on Saturday from an unlikely source in its fight against tools that help users evade its Great Firewall of internet censorship: Apple. Software made by foreign companies to help users skirt the country's system of internet filters has vanished from Apple's app store on the mainland.

One company, ExpressVPN, posted a letter it had received from Apple saying that its app had been taken down "because it includes content that is illegal in China." Another tweeted from its official account that its app had been removed.

[...] In a statement, Apple noted that the Chinese government announced this year that all developers offering VPNs needed to obtain a government license. "We have been required to remove some VPN apps in China that do not meet the new regulations," the company said. "These apps remain available in all other markets where they do business."

Also at TechCrunch, CNET, Newsweek, and TorrentFreak.

---

Original Submission

• IndiaTimes: Russia & China to block VPN and more (Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday July 31 2017, @12:16PM

  by kaszz (4211) on Monday July 31 2017, @12:16PM (#547105) Journal

  Russia & China Are Taking Steps To Block The Internet And This Is Why It Should Matter To You [indiatimes.com] (2017-07-31)

  President Vladimir Putin has just signed a law that will ban VPN (virtual private network) and proxy services starting November 1, and internet providers will be forced to block said services. /../ The Putin government says the measure is supposedly to clamp down on extremist content, by stopping users from circumventing location and content restrictions. However, Russia has a history of passing laws to block both real-life and Internet content that’s critical of Putin, as well as services that could let people communicate in confidence.

  Additionally, Putin has signed another law that comes into effect January 1, where chat apps will be forced to identify users through their phone numbers.

  Russia is holding another presidential election in March, and banning VPNs blocks any voters from catching news from Western media

  the idea is that you’re not going to be able to organise a protest

  China has just forced Apple to take down all its VPN apps from its store /../ strong push towards the country’s 2018 deadline for eliminating VPN services.

  China has three telecom providers, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, all of which are state-owned. In a recent order, all three have been instructed to block access to VPN and proxy services by February 2018. Like Russia, China is also in the grips of a political power, the Communist Party, that refuses to tolerate dissent or criticism of its leaders.

  favour home-grown companies and services. Just ask Apple how many cases it’s won in China against its many hardware clones and you’ll know the truth.

  China has moved on from being a copycat, to being a tech pioneer. A lot of its apps and hardware are drawing attention for being the first to do what Western companies haven’t yet.

  that means that Tim Cook now has no answer when the US government back home makes demands for VPNs to be banned or for its encryption method to be disclosed.

  And if the US can, then why not everywhere else? After all, India is one of Apple's largest growing markets too, behind China.

  (I found this article when looking for something completely different)

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		2