Apple pulls WhatsApp, Threads and Signal from app store in China ( www.washingtonpost.com )

Apple has complied with the Chinese government's request to remove several popular communication apps from its app store, including WhatsApp, Threads, Signal, and Telegram, due to national security concerns. This action was taken following a directive from the Cyberspace Administration of China. These apps have been crucial for political dissidents globally, especially in China where political expression is heavily regulated. Despite previous reliance on VPNs to access these platforms, they are now unavailable for download in China through the official app store. This move by Apple comes amidst increasing tensions between the U.S. and China in the realm of consumer technology, with discussions in the U.S. Senate about the future of TikTok, a popular social media app owned by a Chinese parent company

tal , (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I'm guessing that the US is gonna do the TikTok ban too, then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splinternet

The splinternet (also referred to as cyber-balkanization or internet balkanization) is a characterization of the Internet as splintering and dividing due to various factors, such as technology, commerce, politics, nationalism, religion, and divergent national interests. "Powerful forces are threatening to balkanise it", wrote the Economist weekly in 2010, arguing it could soon splinter along geographic and commercial boundaries. 

huginn ,

I'm not sure how much the tiktok ban will be balkanization so much as just the death of the product. It's popular in the EU but not nearly to the extent as the US market.

No idea who would step into tiktok's shoes in the advent of a ban. Hopefully not any of the big players - their offerings all blow compared to TT.

Stillhart ,
@Stillhart@lemm.ee avatar

You know with Android, you can just sideload any app you want. Still not sure why anyone buys Apple products, but hey at least you get different colored chat bubbles!

dvdnet62 ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

on IOS we can do that as well with trollstore and signalous/maplesign

huginn ,

Aka if you void your warranty and crack your phone OS - something that Apple fights at every turn. If you run your phone in unsafe and unfriendly ways then you can do something Android supports natively by default.

See! They're totally the same guys! Buy iPhones 🤡

Luvon ,

🙄 sideloading alt store at least does not void your warranty.

Software in general won’t void your hardware warranty. That’s ridiculous.

B0rax ,

Those work on untouched iPhones. But you need to resign the apps every 7 days. (Which can be done automatically via the programs that person mentions)

dvdnet62 ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

with trollstore and signalous/maplesign you don't need to resign anymore. it is just normal phone without jailbreak same like Android

ultra ,

but you have to pay

0x0f ,

not with trollstore

ultra ,

that doesnt work on newer devices

dvdnet62 ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

wdym? I use those signing service without jailbreak, no weekly signing and everything works flawlessly like regular smartphone

ultra ,

trollstore doesn't work on every device and sigbalous and maplesign are payed.

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

You forgot about SideStore, AltStore and Sideloadly

petrescatraian ,
@petrescatraian@libranet.de avatar

@Stillhart yea, you can, but that means trusting the third party providing the apk. Besides that, China also has a big power over the internet. They could outright block the apps from working altogether only by cutting the connection. Especially with Threads and WhatsApp where you cannot choose any proxy within the app.

In fact, I think they already did it.

@Sgn

TheMonkeyLord ,
@TheMonkeyLord@sopuli.xyz avatar

I wonder if self hosted fediverse stuff could gain a bit of traction 🤷

petrescatraian , (edited )
@petrescatraian@libranet.de avatar

@TheMonkeyLord in China you mean? Well, if CCP would find a way to control it, then yes.

raptore39 ,

The ability to sideload apps looking real important right about now

thingsiplay ,
@thingsiplay@beehaw.org avatar

Sideload apps only work in the EU. Or does it work in China too?

raptore39 ,

No, only EU

dvdnet62 ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

it is possible for sideload ipa with trollstore/maplesign/signulous

Andromxda ,
@Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

You forgot about SideStore, AltStore and Sideloadly

huginn ,

It works everywhere on the other phone OS 😉

thingsiplay ,
@thingsiplay@beehaw.org avatar

A more correct headline could also be read as: "China pulls WhatsApp, Threads and Signal from app store from Apple." I know technically Apple pulled them away, but logically it was China. Apple had no other choice. If Apple didn't do it, then their devices would be kicked out of China entirely. And that's something China could do, especially because its a closed garden American company and tech, where they cannot break into.

ultratiem ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

They had to. You don’t fuck with China. Whatever they say goes. But yeah, “China forces distributors to pull…” just doesn’t have that incendiary clickbait ring to it.

autotldr Bot ,

🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

Click here to see the summary

Apple has removed several widely used communications platforms from its app store in China at the Chinese government’s demand, amid anger in Beijing over efforts in Washington that could result in a TikTok ban in the United States.

The iPhone maker confirmed Friday that the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s internet regulator, ordered the removal of the apps citing national security concerns.

The incident comes as the U.S. government attempts to reduce the use of China-made technologies in the United States, citing security reasons — efforts that may provoke financial costs to U.S. companies, as Beijing launches tit-for-tat crackdowns.

With four times as many consumers as the United States, China is one of the largest sources of revenue for many U.S. tech companies, including Apple.

Signal and WhatsApp both feature end-to-end encryption, which prevents communications companies or government censors from reading messages unless they have access to the user’s device.

China’s government firewall already blocked access to WhatsApp, although users could use the app with the help of virtual private networks, or VPNs.

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