Roger Fingas
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed off on a new law that will ban virtual private networks (VPNs) and other technologies enabling anonymous access to the Web, likely signaling an impending wave of removals from Apple's regional App Store.
The law will take effect Nov. 1, and is nominally geared towards blocking illegal content, according to TechCrunch. Because Putin and the Russian security establishment have increasingly clamped down on political dissent however, "illegal" content may include a broad scope.
The new policy appears even harsher than one instituted by China, which last week forced Apple to pull VPN apps there. The Chinese government is still permitting VPN services in the country as long as they obtain authorization.
Indeed Russia also beat China to passing laws requiring local user data to be stored on local servers — while Chinese rules only recently took effect, prompting Apple to launch its first Chinese data center, Russia passed its legislation in 2015.
Apple has engendered controversy through its operations in both countries. In Western markets, the company regularly touts its positions on issues like privacy and LGBT rights, but in places like Russia it compromises those values to retain market access.
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Andrew O'Hara
21 Comments
I can see China and Russia's demand for this because of their documented political views but the US better not see this as a justification to do it in a democracy. Our constitution allows freedom of speech and has other checks against our government making unreasonable demands of its citizens. Apple will need to make a corporate decision as to whether they want to continue to sell products in these countries or allow these countries to limit what Apple is allowed to sell. For China, Apple will have to allow them to restrict certain apps because they can't lose China as their primary manufacturing country. This is what the majority of companies have to deal with. China has become the largest manufacturing country in the world and I don't see companies like Walmart severing ties with them. On the other hand, China is starting to understand that they stand to lose a ton of money if they press too hard. Russia, on the other hand, is a meaningless economic country in the midst of continued failure. Apple "might" be able to drop them. People need to remember Russia is just one country in the former USSR, there are former member countries who are trying to be progressive.
So Putin and Russia are safe ground for pounding (-the former yes, the latter not so much imo)? but any discussion pertaining to US politics is not?
This is getting silly.