Apple Removes Russia's Largest Social Network From the App Store (theverge.com) 65
Apple has removed the iOS apps belonging to VK, the technology conglomerate behind Russia's version of Facebook called VKontakte, from its App Store globally. From a report: In a translated statement on its website, VK said that its apps "are blocked by Apple" but that it will "continue to develop and support iOS applications." In response to an inquiry by The Verge, Apple spokesperson Adam Dema confirmed that VK's apps have been removed and its developer accounts shut down.
"These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government," Dema said in a statement. "In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location. Users who have already downloaded these apps may continue to use them."
"These apps are being distributed by developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties sanctioned by the UK government," Dema said in a statement. "In order to comply with these sanctions, Apple terminated the developer accounts associated with these apps, and the apps cannot be downloaded from any App Store, regardless of location. Users who have already downloaded these apps may continue to use them."
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Re:Always happy to comply with "sanctions" (Score:4, Interesting)
Imagine if China declared sanctions on Facebook, and forced Apple to remove it from the App Store. China is a very big market for Apple.
Okay, they would be doing us a favour by banning Facebook, but would you be so unconcerned about that?
It appears that any country in which Apple has significant business interests can enforce sanctions globally on the App Store.
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Imagine if China declared sanctions on Facebook, and forced Apple to remove it from the App Store.
As long as it's social media apps, I'll cheer them on in every country. I'm quite hypocritical on the subject. I don't want corporations playing morality police on anything. So instead, I shrug and say "cool". Social media turned "let me speak MY truth" loose on the world, it needs to implode for the good of humanity.
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Wait until the Christian Fundamentalists take over the U.S. You'll be asked swear allegiance to the cross, and no sneaky doing anything they don't approve of, you won't like what they'll do to you.
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Facebook is available in China from the Apple App Store? How's that going to work when access to Facebook's servers has been blocked since 2008 or 2009 (shortly after I stopped living there, losing contact with some friends in the process).
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The difference is that China only prevents Apple from distributing banned apps in China. The UK is not only preventing Apple from distributing VK apps in the UK, they're preventing Apple from distributing VK apps anywhere. The equivalent would be if China were to tell Apple, "You can't do business in China unless remove all Meta/Facebook apps from all App Stores globally and suspend their developer accounts."
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This kind of thing happens all the time, like the USA telling French banks that they can't do business with Iran, and then fining them billions for doing so.
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Nope, this is more "fuck around and find out."
Russia is finding out.
Re:The Jewing of America (Score:4, Informative)
It impresses me that the Russians continue to tell their people they're fighting Nazis in Ukraine when Russia is the #1 sponsor of fascism and neo-nazism the world over, from its attempts to influence the US election, to its trolls spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that line up with its agenda, as above.
One hopes, ultimately, ordinary Russians will see through this garbage, and realize their country has been taken over by the very people 27 million soviets, majority Russian, died to protect their country against in World War II.
I wonder (Score:2)
If Apple waited until being forced to comply, or they were simply taking their sweet time to shut this app down.
Better late than never I suppose, but knowing what I do about Apple, I suspect they dragged their feet on this until forced.
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If Apple waited until being forced to comply, or they were simply taking their sweet time to shut this app down.
Better late than never I suppose, but knowing what I do about Apple, I suspect they dragged their feet on this until forced.
. . .or perhaps Apple was waiting to see if VK was used by grassroots resistance in Russia, or as a tool for Russian Trolls.
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Some of us already know a bit about history, including Ukrainian history. So why don't YOU tell us something: are there more civilian deaths due to this conflict in Russia or Ukraine?
I'll wait.
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Nice attempt to dodge the question. It didn't work.
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Are they paying you in rubles? You better start asking for crypto instead
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Aren't they both in the same kind of situation - teetering on the edge of realized worthlessness?
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I expect this post will be modded down
"Your" post is an incoherent rant that I'd wager was generated by a bot that doesn't know how to string a cohesive thought together. "Your" subject line is the only thing that calls back to the topic at hand in any way, but it's a spurious and false claim about the Bill of Rights. After that, "you" simply threw out a multitude of baseless accusations, claims, and aspersions that not only have no relation to the topic at hand, they don't even relate to each other. In fact, "your" thoughts are so incoherent t
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I suggest people look into the history of Ukraine and learn about it.
I suggest rather than looking at history you look at current events and actually say something relevant about the situation in the world. Oh and fuck you for justifying an invasion of a sovereign country for any fucking reason.
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I read your entire post. I don't think I understood the point you were trying to make. Was there one? All I see is verbal diarrhea laced with conspiracy theories.
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What? (Score:2)
Earlier this year, Apple stopped selling its products in the country and made certain Russian news apps inaccessible from everywhere but Russia,
At least they didn't cut off the internal propaganda channels. For those of us with access to news sources not under the thumb of the Kremlin, I think all the Baghdad-Bob-style reports about the successes on the front line would mostly serve to entertain.
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Oh, no! (Score:2)
Block the use of all russian apps? (Score:2)
Before the advent of AI, packets where sorted by connection protocol and port numbers. block ports: 22,1194..... block ip: X.X.X.X, ***:****:****:...
Any app now would have to make the network traffic look like normal IP HTTPS traffic. packet traffic steganography
Putin is getting crazy!
The question is:
Will he take the world down with him?
Will Telegram get more users? (Score:1)
So VK can simply ask existing users to move to Telegram since its from the same guy and Telegram is already approved in the App Store (see Pavel Durov).
Really sucks for the real people of Russia (Score:1)
This is just one example of the horrific negative downside of sanctions.
It would be vastly better if people in Russia were able to use apps like this to organize protest against the government, or get more real news as to what is going on in Russia.
Nope! Thanks to sanctions, even more Russians will be kept in the dark about the reality of things.
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The problem with your line of reasoning is you are presuming that Putin would stop at Ukraine. It is crystal clear that he would not. We tried appeasement in 1938 and 2014. We were fools in to try it again in 2014, we would have been reckless idiots to try it in 2022.
Not that when China and India are buying Russian oil and they are only buying a fraction of what Europe used to buy, they are buying at a heavily discounted price so no Russia is not making a nice profit and the price is right back down.
As for
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The problem with your line of reasoning is you are presuming that Putin would stop at Ukraine.
The problem with THAT reasoning is it ignores why Russia invaded to begin with, and ignores any further incursion would be in a NATO country where supported defense would actually makes sense.
All Putin ever wanted was Ukraine as a buffer.
Not that when China and India are buying Russian oil and they are only buying a fraction of what Europe used to buy,
When oil is more expensive Russia makes more money selling less [reuters.com].
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All Putin ever wanted was Ukraine as a buffer.
A buffer against what, exactly?
Show me proof that Russia itself was under attack, and I'll listen.
Putin clearly wants to reconstitute the failed Soviet Union.
Russia is clearly being Imperialistic. Prove they are not.
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Yess Russia would have taken over Ukraine but is that really worse than masses of refugees and dead soldiers all around?
Why don't you go to Eastern Ukraine, or better yet, anywhere in Russia, and find out for yourself?
Shortsighted idiot.
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Also on a side note, if we had not supported Ukraine in this war as we have, had we left t as a regional mater, many tens of thousands of people both from Russia and from Ukraine would still be alive. Yess Russia would have taken over Ukraine but is that really worse than masses of refugees and dead soldiers all around?
And the last time the red army marched westward, it didn't stop until it took over half of Germany. Everyone east of that line suffered horrific brutality and oppression. And it took half a century to expel them. With a 5-digit UID, you ought to be old enough to remember the tail end of that. Fortunately, there are others out there who DO remember their history and would prefer NOT to see a repeat.
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Also on a side note, if we had not supported Ukraine in this war as we have, had we left t as a regional mater, many tens of thousands of people both from Russia and from Ukraine would still be alive. Yess Russia would have taken over Ukraine but is that really worse than masses of refugees and dead soldiers all around?
Why not sacrifice parts of your own country to appease Putin?
Why is it only Ukraine you're willing to give up?
Give him back Alaska. How much of Canada does he want?
Kaliningrad seems to be a good model here. Each appeasing country can set up their own Russian exclave to gift Putin. Every time Putin rattles the nuclear sabre, just make it a little bit bigger until he's satisfied.
NATO scares him, so it best if we disband that too, just to be safe.