At the Behest of Russia, Apple Has Purged Nearly 100 VPN Apps From the App Store

Novaya Gazeta Europe:

Apple removed nearly 60 additional virtual private network (VPN) apps from its Russia App Store between July and September, significantly more than the 25 acknowledged by the Russian authorities, according to a report published on Tuesday by the Apple Censorship Project, which campaigns for greater transparency from Apple over such moves.

According to researchers at GreatFire, an organisation which monitors online censorship in China, data indicates that Apple silently removed nearly 60 VPN services from the Russia App Store between 4 July and 18 September, bringing the total number of VPN apps now unavailable in the country to 98.

The report suggests that the scale of online censorship in Russia is much greater than was previously acknowledged when Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator, announced in early July that it would be blocking 25 VPN apps in the Russian App Store, including some of the world’s most popular services such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN.

The kneejerk criticism to purges like this is to fault Apple for complying. But of course they have to comply. If Apple responded to this demand from the Russian government with “Nah, we’re not going to comply”, the Russian government would shut down the App Store in Russia. It’s the same reason Apple can’t just say “Nah” to complying with the DMA in the EU even though the company staunchly disagrees with the entirety of the DMA’s requirements. The law’s the law, whether the country is a brutal dictatorship or a liberal democracy.

The correct criticism to target at Apple is that this is the best argument against the App Store as the sole distribution channel of software for iOS. VPN software is still available for the Mac in Russia, and, I presume, is still available via sideloading for Android phones. When you create a choke point, you can be choked.

Update: How to configure a VPN on an iPhone without an app.

★ Wednesday, 2 October 2024