Apple Under Fire From Chinese State Media Over HKmap.live App

Owen Churchill, writing for the English-language South China Morning Post:

Chinese state media on Tuesday accused Apple Inc of protecting “rioters” in Hong Kong and enabling illegal behaviour, after the US-based technology giant listed on its app store an application that tracks police activity in the city. […]

The app relies on crowdsourced information to track the location of police presence in the city, alerting users to police vehicles, armed officers and incidents in which people have been injured. The app — a website version is also active — displays hotspots on a map of the city that is continuously updated as users report incidents.

“By allowing its platform to clear the way for an app that incites illegal behaviour, [does Apple] not worry about damaging its reputation and hurting the feelings of consumers?” said a bellicose commentary published on the app of People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece. […]

Such delicate feelings.

The piece made no mention of the fact that the app is also available to Android users via the Google Play store.

For what it’s worth, Google’s services are blocked in China, but they do have business there. Nothing on the scale that Apple does, though.

★ Wednesday, 9 October 2019