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Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

nytimes.com

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Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#221

Post by yoda_sl »

gareim wrote: post #216
Tepix wrote: post #193

You don't need their closed app store. Free workaround: • apply for a free Apple developer account, • compile your own copy of https://github.com/mtigas/OnionBrowser or https://github.com/yuyao110120/ShadowVPN-iOS and • install it on your own iDevice

You get 10 days before your app stops working and you have to do it again. It's a real pain in the butt.

Where do you get that from? Creating app with your own dev account can run on your device for more than 10 days...

[Update] ok I just checked the limitation of the free dev account, and yes because of certificates it is only valid for 7 days... I was thinking about the regular $$ account.

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#222

Post by smichel17 »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #183
bilbo0s wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose there are the questions of law and fiduciary duties. If it's the law, it's the law. In China, it's the law to remove VPN apps. I suppose it's really not much different than the laws in the US that compel companies to give the government access to my information if they request such access. It's just the law, it's not really Facebook and Google trying to screw me. All that said, I think what most posters are…

>I suppose it's really not much different than the laws in the US that compel companies to give the government access to my information if they request such access. It is very different. Censorship with the main objective of keeping an unelected regime in power by suppressing free speech is not the same as any problematic side-effects of fighting crime and terrorism. Granted, there are some grey areas such as oppress…

Basically this. Apple's walled garden puts them in a position of power where their only choices are comply or leave. By contrast, Google could ship an Android phone in China with vpn features removed, ban vpn apps from the play store, and I would still be able to install a 3rd party vpn app.

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#223

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

tormeh wrote: post #197
zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I don't know--but given that Foxconn is apparently planning to open a factory in the US, I would suspect it shouldn't be all that impossible? Also, do you think that China doesn't care about unemployment and exports? I mean, Foxconn is not a charity, they are effectively an exporter of a part of the value of Apple products, and they employ people building Apple products, if they kick out Apple, that money will…

The unemployment from Foxconn's closure wouldn't really make a dent, and would go away pretty quickly. Opening up access to information would be hard to reverse later without facing the same argument with Apple as before. The only reasonable solution is to not yield to Apple.

Hu? How exactly would the lack of export of the work of half a million people "go away pretty quickly"?

Also, noone is talking about opening up anything, just keeping the access that already exists, which they are obviously trying to "reverse" right now, apparently successfully ... and you are saying that cannot actually be done?

I am not sure I can follow your argument?

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#224

Post by choko »

joecool1029 wrote: post #210
tziki wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could always do what Google did and abandon China.

Nah, they really can't. Apple's margins depend on Chinese labor to build their hardware. The two companies are very different.

Market size and profit aren't an acceptable excuse for hypocrisy.

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#225

Post by rayuela »

smichel17 wrote: post #213
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google was aspirational in China when it left: they weren't making much money there...they hoped to in the future. Apple is not aspirational in China today: they are already making a lot of money there. Leaving China would cause an immediate shock to its stock price as well as a huge cut in actual profits.

...the profit motive makes it okay! /s

The profit means Cook keeps his job

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#226

Post by asdfologist »

paradite wrote: post #200
asdfologist wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What can a dictator do that Xi Jinping can't?

> What can a dictator do that Xi Jinping can't? Stay in power for as long as he wants, and then pass the leadership to his child.

It's unclear that Xi cannot pull that off.

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#227

Post by seanmcdirmid »

smichel17 wrote: post #213
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google was aspirational in China when it left: they weren't making much money there...they hoped to in the future. Apple is not aspirational in China today: they are already making a lot of money there. Leaving China would cause an immediate shock to its stock price as well as a huge cut in actual profits.

...the profit motive makes it okay! /s

It means that either Cook is CEO of Apple, or he isn't. Either way, Apple will still be in China.

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#229

Post by idlewords »

joecool1029 wrote: post #210
tziki wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could always do what Google did and abandon China.

Nah, they really can't. Apple's margins depend on Chinese labor to build their hardware. The two companies are very different.

That's an Apple business decision.

Re: Apple Removes Apps from China Store That Help Internet Users Evade Censorship

#230

Post by dep_b »

denzil_correa wrote: post #103
pipio21 wrote: post #65

Just common sense, given that the China gobertment has made usage of VPNs illegal. What do you expect? People in China could continue using app store accounts created in other countries as usual. And most educated people continue using VPNs too. Normal people are becoming experts in encription, security... It worries me more that countries like the UK and the US want to follow China, in that order.

> gobertment Curious and slightly off topic. Was this intentional or just a typo?

In Spanish it's more or less pronounced like this.
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