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GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

applecensorship.com

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Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#61

Post by judge2020 »

philwelch wrote: post #49
RandallBrown wrote: post #27

I'm not sure how this shows censorship. It just shows you if an app is available in China. Lots of apps aren't available in China or outside of where the developer is based.

It's also a really, really, really hard line to draw. Lots of countries have laws and regulations that may require a company to withdraw apps from an app store. If you had a Wolfenstein game in your app store, you'd have to "censor" it in the German app store. China is especially censorious and authoritarian, but your only options are (a) don't do business at all in an especially censorious and authoritarian country,…

In this case, it isn't Apple censorship. But even if Apple was the one to pull an app due to a country's local laws, we can't expect Apple to start refusing removal requests when it threatens the app store (or worse, Apple products) being banned in the entire country.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#62

Post by threeseed »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #44
duskwuff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hesitate to call that "censorship" at all. Some apps simply aren't relevant in a country because they're associated with a physical service which doesn't exist there. For example, a number of food delivery apps (like Uber Eats and Grubhub) don't operate in China, and as such have chosen to not make their app available there.

And nobody ever leaves the country. Or if they do, they're totally willing to go through the entire giant hassle of switching their account for a few days.

Then take that up with the individual app developer.

It has nothing to do with Apple or censorship.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#64

Post by thaumasiotes »

joe_hoyle wrote: post #19
thaumasiotes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It falls under the "nominative use" defense to an assertion of trademark infringement. Free speech has nothing to do with it. Trademarks are intended to provide consumers with the confidence that the products they're buying really come from the producer they claim to come from. As such, you're prohibited from assembling your own computer and branding it Apple; you've never been prohibited from referring to Apple.

It was my understanding that this doesn’t cover using a trademark in a domain name. I could be wrong; my only experience of this is that “WordPress” is a trademark, and therefore it’s generally accepted that any WordPress related product is not allowed to use the trademark in their domains.

If it is true that that is "generally accepted", it's not for any reason based in the law.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#66

Post by larrysalibra »

As many have noted, you can't tell from this site whether apple decided to remove an app from the China app store or the developer decided never offer it in that coutnry. Because of that, it's not useful for calling out censorship.

We do know, however, that Apple does certain certain apps and functionality on device for China. Censorship of the News app is one such example: https://www.larrysalibra.com/how-apple-censors-news-in-china

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#68

Post by lazyasciiart »

threeseed wrote: post #62
lazyasciiart wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And nobody ever leaves the country. Or if they do, they're totally willing to go through the entire giant hassle of switching their account for a few days.

Then take that up with the individual app developer. It has nothing to do with Apple or censorship.

I was objecting to the statement that some apps are not relevant in those countries.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#69

Post by hhanesand »

China commands such a massive market which makes it hard to rationalize neglecting it, purely from a revenue standpoint. Going to be interesting to see how Western companies respond to the continuing rise of authoritarian policies in China, and whether or not it influences their business practices outside of China.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#70

Post by mikkelam »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #44
duskwuff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hesitate to call that "censorship" at all. Some apps simply aren't relevant in a country because they're associated with a physical service which doesn't exist there. For example, a number of food delivery apps (like Uber Eats and Grubhub) don't operate in China, and as such have chosen to not make their app available there.

And nobody ever leaves the country. Or if they do, they're totally willing to go through the entire giant hassle of switching their account for a few days.

You have to specifically go into settings and change your app store country
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