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Apple Removes WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram, and Signal from China App Store, says it complied with orders from the Chinese government (arstechnica.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Apple said it complied with orders from the Chinese government to remove the Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store in China. Apple also removed Telegram and Signal from China.

The New York Times similarly wrote that "a person briefed on the situation said the Chinese government had found content on WhatsApp and Threads about China's president, Xi Jinping, that was inflammatory and violated the country's cybersecurity laws. The specifics of what was in the content was unclear, the person said."

"These apps and many foreign apps are normally blocked on Chinese networks by the 'Great Firewall'—the country's extensive cybersystem of censorship—and can only be used with a virtual private network or other proxy tools," Reuters wrote.

"For years, Apple has bowed to Beijing's demands that it block an array of apps, including newspapers, VPNs, and encrypted messaging services," The New York Times noted yesterday.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Honestly, life on Android isn’t going to be much better.

The great firewall blocks Meta, Google, Signal, and Telegram’s sides. So no play store downloads, and no direct APK downloads.

Chinese users on iOS and Android basically have to pirate an IPA or APK, sideload, hope that shit wasn’t compromised by the state, and VPN out of the country.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yea but at least with android you can download and install apks and find a way around stuff. Apple has their stuff locked down and they make it difficult to do that sort of stuff.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 5 months ago

True. That stuff can hamper curb peer to peer distribution, which Chinese citizens have been know to do, since it can bypass ISPs.

That said, if you’re pirating stuff in China and fucking with VPNs already, you’re probably tech literate enough to side load an IPA. It’s not too hard to do without jailbreaking these days.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can at least modify Android to get rid of crap. You can't do that with Apple.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yup. If you want more customization flexibility, Android is the way to go.

That said, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking the CCP isn’t also aggressively trying to censor and monitor communication options for Android phones. Apple is only 15% to 20% of new phone sales in China. Android is the priority for the CCP.

And simply loading up your favorite private VPN and downloading an APK is not the same in China as it in the western world.

Chinese VPNs are monitored by state regulators, non Chinese VPNs can get thrown behind the great firewall, western sites that post their own APKs for direct download get firewalled, etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago

Andoid is the priority for everyone with a brain :) Apple's walled gardens are harmful for everyone who is not apple.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

...what? Use a VPN -> download the APK. Not hard.

APKs are signed so you can easily know if they were tampered with.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

My point being, the CCP has already thought about this.

First you need to find a non Chinese VPN that isn’t monitored by the state and or blocked by the great firewall. And searching for great VPN options isn’t exactly great, because search engines like Baidu are monitored and censored.