Human rights groups denounce fruit cargo cult
Human rights groups have accused the fruity cargo cult Apple of selling the lives of its users to authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China for profit.
Two reports, one on Apple’s antics in Hong Kong and the other on activities in the reputation of the Russian waterboard company.
The reports, “Apps at Risk: Apple’s Censorship and Compromises in Hong Kong” and “United Apple: Apple’s Censorship and Compromises in Russia,” were published by the Apple Censorship Project, which is run by the freedom advocacy group expression GreatFire.
Greatfire’s director of campaign and advocacy, Benjamin Ismail, called Apple’s self-proclaimed support for LGBTQ+ rights a particular rubbish.
Apple’s temporary withdrawal from Russia after the start of the war in Ukraine, and Apple’s decision to move some of its production out of China, has so far brought no tangible evidence of any improvement. of the situation in the App Store. Apple is always willing to work with repressive regimes.”
The Apps at Risk report claims that Apple’s 50% share of the smartphone market makes it the Chinese Communist Party’s de facto kill switch for politically difficult content.
He notes that the Hong Kong App Store in November 2022 lacked 2,370 apps available elsewhere. In the Chinese App Store, 10,837 apps are missing, and in the Russian App Store, this figure is 2,754.
Many VPN apps disappeared from the Hong Kong App Store, the report said. And over the past couple of years, many media and news apps have been taken down around the world, suggesting that Apple is either engaging in global self-censorship or doing so on behalf of authorities.
Apple has failed to provide support for Hong Kong residents’ right to unrestricted access to information and to speak up online, even as the Chinese government has cracked down on the democracy movement in Hong Kong, the report says. .
“Apple has known about Beijing’s authoritarian preferences for decades. Apple’s response to events in Hong Kong in recent years is not a knee-jerk reaction. Apple’s response is aligned with its global business strategies, with top priority to appease the Chinese government to protect Apple’s supply chain, distribution channels and revenue stream.”
The situation in Russia is similar in that from 2018 to 2022, Apple seemed to more easily comply with Kremlin censorship demands.
While Apple’s compliance with censorship demands is best exemplified by instances of removing apps from the iOS App Store, Russia’s innovative and widespread oppression has also led to software censorship (LGBTQ+ watch faces ), accessories (LGBTQ+ wristbands), software-based mapping (Crimea), protocols (Private Relay), and even iOS design (Russian iOS).
The Russia report, citing Apple’s removal of LGBTQ+ apps amid state-sponsored homophobia, denounces “the insincerity of Apple’s self-proclaimed support for LGBTQ+ rights.”
The human rights group said there were signs Apple was still willing to deal with regimes to maintain market access, to build and sell its products. Apple’s private relay never arrived in China and was canceled in Russia.
The Tame Apple Press did its best to whitewash the report by saying other companies must have made similar deals. But GreatFire said Google and Twitter, he said, do much better in terms of transparency. Apple has a bad habit of lying in its transparency reports and deliberately conceals the extent of app unavailability and the reality of the 175 App Stores it operates around the world.
“It might be time for Apple to consider the possibility that it is doing more harm by having a presence in China than by not being there,” Ismail said. “In its Human Rights Policy, Apple states that ‘our approach is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’, but each principle set out in this UN document is exactly the opposite of Apple’s policy.”
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