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.
This just in - companies that want to continue doing business in country must follow country’s laws. More at 10.
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While also having TikTok banned in China 😂
If only the phone operating system allowed you to load applications from somewhere other than the official app store. Someone should make a phone that does that.
Yes, but play that tape forward as someone living in China. Lets pretend you wanted to use Signal
- you can’t download Signal’s APK directly from their site. It’s behind the great firewall
- you can’t VPN to their site or services via popular local VPN services. Chinese VPNs are regulated and monitored by the state.
- western VPN services get thrown behind the great firewall and or obscured from search because the government censors Baidu.
Etc etc.
There a ways to pull it off, but China does not make it easy. Android is over 80% of phone sales in China. Censoring comms on Android is the state’s priority.
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I will be here to remind folks when US bans TikTok that china did it long ago
Chinese TikTok is Douyin & it’s not banned there. They wouldn’t ban something that they can use for control or else WeChat wouldn’t exist now.
You cannot access contents in tiktok in douyin, nor is tiktok.com accessible in China, which can be tested here: https://www.comparitech.com/privacy-security-tools/blockedinchina/
Hence I believe it is reasonable to say tiktok is blocked in China.
You completely missed what I was referring to. China already banned most of US apps and websites. Some never even were allowed at the start. Like Twitter, Google, Facebook. They blocked those and just ripped them off (copied) for their own. They also have different version of TikTok as you said. Wonder why
Yes, use an Android phone (which you can sideoad apks on), preferably with a custom ROM and Tor, if you have to be in China for whatever reason.
Doesn’t matter where you are. Side loading is a must have for any device, especially phones because a lot of their functions require installing applications. This is like saying privacy is only important if you have something to hide. People are under the assumption that just by enabling side loading they’ll open up their phones to viruses or something. If you don’t need to just stick to your regular app store but having the option is important. If everything you do on your phone is connected to a single company then you aren’t private, it’s only an illusion of privacy.
Oh, certainly I would advocate using Android anywhere, but especially China.
Just be careful if the trusted download sources also get blocked.
I know sideloading is a big concern for the folks over at Signal. They’ve been worried about compromised APKs floating around.
Yeah, Signal is a funny one. Claim to be about privacy and then don’t put their app on F-Droid.
App stores were a mistake. We used to get software from its developer or from a source we chose. Now that we expect there to be a central app store, it can be used for censorship.
No they aren’t. Locked down restrictive app stores are the problem. App stores can provide visibility to apps that might not get it otherwise. Or help developers reach an audience through a central deployment platform. They can promote better security as well. Making updates easy and prompt. They’re more or less at the heart of every Linux/BSD platform for a reason.
Let’s be honest. How frequently do you check for updates to every program you installed manually? Even if the program itself notifies you. Are you going to navigate to the website immediately. Find the download link and promptly install for every, single, one. App stores and repositories are literally one of the greatest software inventions of the last 30+ years.
Being locked to a specific store or repository is the problem. Which is why everyone but apple tends to provide solutions. Whether it’s side loading, flatpack, app images etc.
This is why I also mentioned “a source we chose”. On GNU/Linux package managers and F-Droid I can add additional package sources which can be managed by the developer.
Point is, it shouldn’t be a thing that Apple or Google or anyone has this kind of power.
Fair enough and agreed.
TIL that WhatsApp, Threads, Telegram and Signal were on the Chinese App Store.
Facebook has an onion doman just for this
That’s because the US doesn’t pay thousands of people (wumaos) to manufacture weak outrage at the things that the Chinese “communist“ party has already done long ago
A lot of folks seem to be recommending sideloading on Android as a workaround. But remember, the great firewall even makes that difficult in China.
Direct downloading APKs can be hard when direct download sites are blocked by ISPs, local VPNs are state regulated and monitored, western alternatives get blocked and finding them is obscured in Baidu, etc.
Sideloading on Android -is- easier than iOS, but China still throws up a LOT of roadblocks when they decide to censor something.
A lot of the internet freedom and flexibility that exists in the west does not exist in China. It’s not always as easy as paying for a VPN and visiting Signal.com/android/apk/
From what I have seen, VPNs are still not uncommon in China despite it all, have seen a few Chinese users in our IRC too. What matters is that opportunity exists after you’ve put in the necessary effort, rather than what happens on Apple devices.
VPNs are common, but local Chinese VPNs are regulated and monitored by the state.
The thing is if doing this can get you into legal troubles?
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Firmly jizzing.
Tbh, I can’t really be critical of this when we are about to ban tiktok. Threads and WhatsApp is as much of a foreign propoganda tool for them as is tiktok for us.
God forbid that sixth of humanity hears the truth.
i saw somewhere yesterday that it also removed siskin (or snikket? or both?) xmpp client.
It seems that Telegram is the most popular among cat abusers in China. And before I write further, there are people in china currently taking huge risks in demanding the government to pass laws that give them harsh punishments.
And as per inflammatory content about the president goes, well, when these cat abusers are not busy abusing cats, they are busy putting pig snout in his face. The government is busy trying to silence journalists trying to make people aware of the cat abuse situation because they think that this action of making huge noise will harm the reputation of China while turning a blind eye on all the cat abuses happening within the borders.
Telegram is known to not cooperate with other governments at all. Like how they did nothing to help South Korea with nth room situation. I am sure they dont care to provide information about these cat abusers either.
What’s the cat abuse situation over there? Is it worse than our pig/cow/chicken abuse situation?
I have never heard anyone boiling a pig/cow/chicken alive for fun and profit. Or pulling the teeth out one by one. Or using a huge scissors to cut their limbs, you know, things that cool kids do
825,000 chickens per year in the U.S are accidentally boiled alive or drowned before their intended slaughter. https://animalclock.org/ this isn’t prevented because prevention mechanisms cost money, as in they eat into profits.
It’s standard practice for male pigs to have their tails and testicles ripped out without pain relief https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23817808/pig-farm-investigation-feedback-immunity-feces-intestines this link also showcases how people abuse pigs for fun. Objectifying animals you kill is a coping mechanism for humans, engaging in that much killing is unnatural and unhealthy for humans, it also leads to vastly higher rates of domestic violence and crime, as it normalizes violence as a solution.
It’s normal for foxes to have their skin ripped off while they’re alive. Animals have their beaks ripped off so they can’t kill each other in distress, as they go literally insane, abandon normal social hierarchies, and start simply trying to kill each other given the lack of space. http://www.nationearth.com/
I understand ignorance of how horrible the conditions are is a normal part of how humans justify our atrocities. However what always baffles me is people who appear genuinely concerned about animal welfare can be so absurdly uninformed on the practices that they directly support with their purchases, while criticizing practices that you have absolutely no influence over in a place on the other side of the planet.
I have heard of goats having their testicles ripped off, never pigs. This is another level of horror
