And Apple is getting forced to UNLOCK the iphone app store in the EU lmao
Nice of the headline not to specify this only applies to the Chinese version of the apple app store.
But then again, this is the verge, so clickbait in the norm.
Thanks for clarifying that. While still shit, it’s obvious China would do that. Censorship is the norm there
I think this has always been Apple’s weakest aspect. They position themselves as a thought leader and ethical company, but when push comes to shove, will do whatever it takes to get market access.
Say what you want about Google - at least they put their money where their mouth is on China.
Only after they found out it would be unprofitable.
Google has no high ground here, project dragonfly was worked on for a long while until it wasn’t going to be a cash cow.
They pulled out of China in 2010. They were considering a return internally and scrapped it. Buy they didn’t leave because they “found out it would be unprofitable.”
Google’s no saint, I get it, but everyone and their mother knew in 2010 that China is a hundred-billion dollar market opportunity and businesses were (and still are) pumping tens of billions of dollars into unlocking that. Google was there very early for tech, and while their lunch was still being eaten by Baidu in 2010 due to government pumping up the local competitor, there was no business sense in leaving. That’s why I think they really did leave exactly why they said - a refusal to censor search results. They would still be there if it was just a business decision.
I would like to add that this was considerably recent, they pulled out of China deliberately when they were asked to censor search. Idk what changed but there have been too many changes there to pinpoint what’s the actual reason.
They position themselves as a thought leader and ethical company, but when push comes to shove, will do whatever it takes to get market access.
One way to look at it is what is best in the real world for actual Chinese citizens. On one hand we have Apple, who generally does the bare minimum to comply with Chinese regulations and occasionally picks its battles on what things are worth pushing back on and which are worth just dealing with. On the other hand we have every Chinese service provider, all of whom bend over backwards not only to comply with their legal requirements to go above and beyond to do whatever the party wants. The government doesn’t even really need to censor people’s chats because the companies happily do it themselves.
Are Chinese citizens better off without iMessage and FaceTime, fully end-to-end encrypted services? Are they better off with a phone that is sending all of their usage data to a Chinese company?
Apple could refuse to operate in the Chinese market on principle and feel very haughty about itself, but that wouldn’t make the life of its former customers any better.
Apple when Europe wants them to protect their customers vs. Apple when China wants them to lock every profitable app out
No, they treated it the same as the EU regulations and held back until the policy was effective.
China is a toxic shithole. I feel sorry for the people and culture destroyed because of the revolution.
This is why Taiwan (ROC) is the true China who tried their best to preserve their own culture and country as much as they could, moving artifacts and such to the island (colloquially mainlanders even call Taiwan "treasure island). The CCP were demolishing temples and artifacts as well as killing millions and people and destroying their country.
I just want to add some additional context: Taiwan existed as a nation long before the RoC fled to the island and massacred the population (look up the White Terror). There continues to be quite a bit of tension between the original population and the RoC about the national identity. I wouldn’t really call Taiwan the true China. My family is native Taiwanese and I know there is a lot of anger at how their government was taken over.
But if they use that same VPN they can just access the US App Store,… The step has just been moved forward… 😅
VPNs are useless for accessing the US App Store, you need to change your Apple ID region which is even easier
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Apple’s iPhone App Store in China is getting a whole lot more locked down.
China recently updated an existing online software regulation to lay out strict criteria for app stores and apps in the country, and after looking for ways around it, Apple has started to comply.
Now, as Apple honors the regulation, it closes a loophole that had let iPhone users in China download and, with a VPN, use apps that the government there has blocked for most or all of the country, like WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube.
Reuters writes that, in order for an app to qualify for an ICP license, they are “effectively” required to host their back end in China.
Apple was pushing back on the requirement, but app stores from Tencent, Huawei, and others had apparently already complied with the rule.
We asked Apple for a comment and whether the rule has affected any apps yet but did not receive a response by press time.
The original article contains 272 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 41%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
