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.
Related Stories
Russia has banned VPNs capable of circumventing website blocking, and will require users of chat apps to have a phone number associated with their accounts:
Vladimir Putin has banned virtual private networks (VPNs) and Tor in a crackdown on apps that allow access to websites prohibited in Russia. The law, signed by Mr Putin, was passed by Russia's parliament last week and will now come into force on 1 November. A second law to ban anonymous use of online messaging services will take effect on 1 January next year.
It would make it easier for the state to snoop on citizens' browsing habits, one internet security expert suggested.
The laws signed by Mr Putin are meant only to block access to "unlawful content" and not target law-abiding web users, the head of the lower house of parliament said, according to the RIA news agency.
One feature of the second law is the provision to require internet operators to restrict users' access if they are found to be distributing illegal content.
Also at Engadget, ZDNet, RT, TechCrunch, and CNET.
Related: Apple Capitulates, Removes Unlicensed VPN Apps From China App Store
Senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy have written to Apple CEO Tim Cook to ask ten questions about Apple's recent removal of VPN apps from its Chinese app store:
Two US senators have written to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking why the company reportedly removed VPN apps from the company's store in China. "If these reports are true," the senators wrote, "we are concerned that Apple may be enabling the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance of the Internet."
[...] On or around July 29, Apple removed many of the most-used VPN applications from its Chinese app store. In a short email from the company, VPN providers were informed that VPN applications are considered illegal in China.
"We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines," Apple informed the affected VPNs.
[...] Now, in a letter sent to Apple CEO Tim Cook, US senators Ted Cruz and Patrick Leahy express concern at the move by Apple, noting that if reports of the software removals are true, the company could be assisting China's restrictive approach to the Internet.
"VPNs allow users to access the uncensored Internet in China and other countries that restrict Internet freedom. If these reports are true, we are concerned that Apple may be enabling the Chines[sic] government's censorship and surveillance of the Internet."
Leahy and Cruz were cosponsors of the USA Freedom Act.
Previously: Apple Capitulates, Removes Unlicensed VPN Apps From China App Store
Russia Bans VPNs and Tor, Effective November 1
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday July 31 2017, @09:11AM (3 children)
I've never owned an iphone. Does it do sideloading? Does this matter?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 3, Informative) by RamiK on Monday July 31 2017, @10:40AM
I believe it recently become possible to sideload FOSS using xcode freely. And yes, if it's as privileged as the store apps, it solves the problem.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday July 31 2017, @07:48PM
If you jailbreak, you get access to the Cydia App Store. It has lots of Apps that Apple would not approve of.
Alternatively you can build source code yourself with Xcode.
Jailbreaking has the advantage that you can build on some other platform than Mac OS X. Without jailbreaking you can only build on Mac OS X.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by pendorbound on Tuesday August 01 2017, @03:23PM
You can get a free developer account that will allow side loading apps you have source or (with some work) unencrypted binaries. VPN apps require an Apple-signed entitlement to operate (NETunnelProvider API [apple.com]). I'm not sure if it's possible to obtain that entitlement for a development-only side loaded app.
(Score: 2, Troll) by jmorris on Monday July 31 2017, @09:29AM (4 children)
Hard to really blame Apple for obeying the law when the alternative is having the App Store banned by the Great Firewall and being forbidden from selling product in the country. Of course the totally closed nature of an iOS device is chocolate to China's peanut butter in that they go perfectly together to chain the user with no recourse.
So any crypto weenies want to explain again how VPNs and strong crypto preserve privacy against unfree governments? Ready to admit all this TOR and such is just LARPing that you are brave "Freedom Fighters"? It works great against mostly free Western governments who really don't care. When a real totalitarian government decides to stop playing we now know exactly how long it takes to shut it down, one phone call.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @09:41AM (1 child)
That's why they conduct mass surveillance on the populace and use techniques such as parallel construction once they have singled out their targets: Because they don't care! That's also why they often attack activists (like with the letter the FBI sent to MLK trying to get him to commit suicide) and whistleblowers. They just don't care.
I don't know why you have such a hard-on for bashing VPNs and such, especially since they're useful for more than just hiding from governments.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday July 31 2017, @12:04PM
Seems they succeeded with Aaron Swartz (1986 – 2013) ?
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Monday July 31 2017, @02:26PM (1 child)
But Apple should have a lot of leverage. All those Apple devices that are assembled in China. Can't that assembly move to another country?
How much wealth does Apple bring to China? How many jobs? How much does Apple export from China?
The fact that this leverage either didn't work or was not a realistic threat does not bode well for the West.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @04:34PM
Apple likely didn't make the threat, so we won't know if it would be effective or not.
Relocating an entire supply and manufacturing chain is incredibly expensive.
Since Apple is a business and not a person, their only decision here is whether it makes them more money to take down this app - ethics don't play into it. In this case the decision should be obvious.
Why fight it? There's nothing to gain.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday July 31 2017, @10:43AM (6 children)
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=21516 [soylentnews.org]
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40774315 [bbc.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Monday July 31 2017, @11:30AM (3 children)
Russia is generally a China appendix nowadays.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 01 2017, @01:34PM (2 children)
Reminds me of the movie 'Arrival': Russia and 3 other countries do whatever China does.
Enjoyed that movie.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by fraxinus-tree on Tuesday August 01 2017, @02:41PM (1 child)
Didn't see the movie, but the plot is in the news, right now.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday August 01 2017, @05:49PM
I know: Trump is the alien they are trying to communicate with, lol.
Should watch it: very interesting, even the strange 'time travel' bit.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday July 31 2017, @05:08PM
Russia banned Jehovah’s Witnesses too. Very smart move! They are taking back their country, just like we will! Good for them! 🇺🇸
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday July 31 2017, @07:51PM
It's illegal there too but the laws aren't enforced.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @11:06AM
CrApple has a long history of abusing its customers also in this particular way https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-apple.html#censorship [gnu.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday July 31 2017, @12:16PM
Russia & China Are Taking Steps To Block The Internet And This Is Why It Should Matter To You [indiatimes.com] (2017-07-31)
(I found this article when looking for something completely different)
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday July 31 2017, @01:29PM (1 child)
This is one of the reasons why supporting iOS is a bad idea. If Apple (or someone they agree or comply with) decides you can't install something, you have no recourse. They've done it for educational software, they've done it for frikkin' magazines relating to competing platforms. Saying "I can install everything *I* need" is very much like "first they came for the trade-unionists". Apple have made this degree of control on what should be a general computing platform acceptable.
I really wish people would have a little long term vision and stop supporting this. The damage they've done is huge. Microsoft is now of course trying the same thing. Won't that be wonderful.
Add on top of that limiting yourself to a platform with precisely one source for hardware and one source for software seems to be an exceptionally stupid thing to do.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday July 31 2017, @07:55PM
I can get work whose deliverable runs on an Apple Platform.
I advertise Linux and Windows expertise too, but no one ever offers me any such work.
Not getting any work at all led me to being homeless. Now I'm paying my own rent.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]