The multinational has removed dozens of apps, even though the Kremlin’s censorship body did not order the move. These services, half-permitted by the government, enable people in Russia to access social networks and independent media
The U.S. company — whose phones are still sold in Russian stores despite the firm officially leaving the market due to the invasion of Ukraine…
Apple taking a brave stand as ever.
Edit: This was not the smartest comment.
Apple left Russia but their phones are still making it there from China. What stand do you mean?
Apple could still easily release updates for their phones that prevent anyone from connecting to a Russian cell tower or connecting to a Russian IP address.
I thought about that, but it would affect iPhone users from outside Russia who are traveling in Russia, and Apple probably wouldn’t want that.
Is your expectation that Apple will send in troops to raid phone stores inside of Russia?
Maybe they expect them to stop China from selling them to Russia, bahahaha
I misunderstood and my comment wasn’t well considered. It was even dumb.
This is why you don’t buy into closed-garden ecosystems like this. If you’re on iOS, there’s nothing you can do about it, you’re at their mercy. Android has great support for side loading. There’s really only one choice if you care about freedom.
You can side load on iPhone, it’s just not as easy. I have multiple side loaded apps.
Don’t you have to renew them all the time though?
Not anymore if you use their new sideloading framework… which is only available in the EU
You still have to if you sign yourself. You still need a dev Account to sign for longer timeframe
So you’re saying that Apple doesn’t have great support for side loaded apps unlike Android.
This is why you don’t buy into closed-garden ecosystems like this.
You can absolutely set up a VPN without any app, thus your argument of how this is a reason why the walled-garden concept is flawed. iOS also has side-loading btw :)
There’s really only one choice if you care about freedom.
There really isn’t just one choice if you care about freedom, it’s ironic you think a singular choice is the way forward anyway when talking about freedom. Really interesting how you shape this narrative based on zero facts.
Lastly, I think it’s very funny that you think Google is someone you can trust to give you freedom
You’ve replied to like 5 other of my comments the exact same thing at this point. Like I replied to the other guy, my comment is not saying you can’t set up a VPN without an app, even though that’s a very rare method of doing so regardless. Apple is literally a closed garden, that does not change anything lol.
Also no, like I said in my other comment, you can’t side load. What you think is a “gotcha” is that there’s a work around where you register a developer account and load an unofficial application that way. You know very well yourself that Apple does not want you sideloading, and this is not meant for consumer applications, and that it is easily blockable at any point by Apple. That is why the EU is constantly hitting Apple with anti-trust and anti-competition lawsuits. This has literally been proven in court, it is not an opinion. You are being incredibly bad faith for no reason. Apple does not want you sideloading, Android does.
Also AOSP is not Google. Though in reality, Google phones tend to support alternative operating systems the best. Even if that stopped being the case and they went locked down suddenly, there are still tons of other Android manufacturers out there that can have their bootloader unlocked and run their entirely own degoogled ecosystems. So you should probably know what you’re talking about, but you think this is a brand vs brand debate or something. It’s not, Android is simply designed around side-loading, is officially supported, and intended by consumers. iOS is not. It’s not complicated.
Tech enthusiasts won’t be slowed down by a removal of an app from the app store, but then again, tech enthusiasts don’t buy iphones.
Yes they do. Millions of them do.
iOS supports VPN out of the gate. Apps just make it easier to configure. Please don’t spew divisive misinformation, regardless if this is ignorant to the facts or otherwise.
Where did you read that I said iOS doesn’t support adding VPNs?
My message is clearly talking about side loading. Don’t twist my words.
I do wish it were possible to make iOS more free. With that said, is it a fair comparison to draw when someone only knows how to use a VPN if it’s in the App Store, whether Apple’s or Google Play?
So novices on either platform are harmed by lessened app availability even while both could be instructed to set a VPN up in settings or sideload an app.
Now if it’s a TOR browser or something, that’s a big L for Apple.
is it a fair comparison to draw when someone only knows how to use a VPN if it’s in the App Store
This whole thread is absurd, sideloading is possible on iOS, end of story. As per the original OP, their comment is 100% about sideloading
My message is clearly talking about side loading. Don’t twist my words.
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Imagine thinking that’s the same thing as Android’s side loading support. The cope is real.
Their comment got deleted, what did they say?
and iOS supports sideloading, don’t twist reality. The elitism is dripping from every word of your comment. It’d be alright if your comments were based in reality but they aren’t :/
Bro I hope Apple is paying you for all the white knighting you’re doing for them. To side load on Apple, you have to create a developer account and treat it as if you’re developing an app. That is borderline exploiting it and definitely not intended to be used for regular consumer applications. For all intents and purposes, you can’t side load on Apple because this is not intended nor recommended for anyone, and is easily blocked by Apple if they ever choose to do so.
You’re being blatantly bad faith to compare that to Android where you can simply download an apk, open it, and press install. It’s entirely supported and intended by Android’s design. Android goes so far to support seamless updates for third party app stores, and extends their app malware scanner to side loaded apks as well.
If you consider those two to be the same, then you’re just in bad faith and not worth taking seriously, and are looking to argue for the sake of arguing. Apple is not your friend. They do not want you side loading, and you know this.
Normal VPNs don’t work in Russia, you need one that’s masked as usual traffic now.
You can get a free VPS from AWS or Oracle Cloud and set up Wireguard on it
It’s blocked, you need to set up hysteria or vless/reality to avoid VPN blocks which means you need to run the client
Do they really block all connections to popular cloud providers? That also blocks a bunch of “innocent” websites and services, doesn’t it?
They just block the VPN protocol, you need to pretend to be a website
VPN over an HTTP proxy then?
Or WireGuard TCP over UDP obfuscation?
It’s blocked, you need to set up hysteria or vless/reality to avoid VPN blocks which means you need to run the client
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Suspicious!
You can use most VPN services via the Wireguard or OpenVPN apps though, or even via some of the protocols natively supported by iOS not requiring any third-party app.
Normies never heard about wireguard nor openvpn, this enough to deter a lot of ppl imo
Oh I’m not trying to imply otherwise.
The issue is 3rd party apps make it easier for non-techie people to subvert censorship. Raising the bar works bigly in the Kremlin’s favor.
side-loading in iOS has been possible for some time now
Nothing suspicious. Russia is openly engaging in a war of aggression and money laundering. They have a storied history of corruption, kleptomania, and deceitful diplomacy (HUR HUR AMERICA BAD TOO!). An American company is trying to
do the bare minimumput pressure on Russians.Absolutely, in addition to this, you can sideload apps as well without issue. I do it all the time
Corporations. Are. Not. Your. Friend.
This message courtesy of corporations rent seeking on public infrastructure our economies cannot survive without.
I see no mention of what they actually removed or how reputable they are. “VPN apps” are a reasonably common approach to spyware. (Common enough that literally Facebook has done it.)
You mean vpn apps deploy spyware?
They’re a good actual mechanism for spyware, because they see all your traffic.
Https means that they can’t see the actual contents without installing a root certificate, but they can see all the sites you visit and for how long. Reputable providers (at least the good ones) do not log any of this, but you should have a high level of trust in a provider to use their VPN, because they see a lot still.
That doesn’t mean that they didn’t ban legit VPNs. I don’t know. But it doesn’t really qualify as “reporting news” without at least a list of the apps that were banned, because they’re providing no information at all about the legitimacy of the apps, and it’s a category appealing to bad actors.
Not familiar with iphones, can’t you just use plain wireguard?
Why don’t they just disable iphones entirely from accessing Russian cell towers and prevent iphones from connecting to Russian IP addresses?
While I understand your idea, thats a level of censorship in the hands of a private company that is so cyber punk dystopian that it makes William Gibson cry.
Imagine your phone will start playing the Chinese anthem before it sends your dickpicks to your mother
No more dystopian than banning someone from Reddit. If you violate a TOS of any service provider, they’re usually within their right to terminate your access to the service. If Apple wants to truly shut down Russian usership of their products, they obviously have the power to do so. I find it more dystopian that there’s a multinational multitrillion dollar company that has the power to act ethically in this scenario but chooses to just remove apps from the app store, as if Russians aren’t already culturally inclined to look for hacks or workarounds.
Ofc they have the power to do so. John Deere did just that with stolen machines (incidentally underlining that you actually rent their machines) My point is that you buy the iphone hardware, and the use is not a service. And the possibility of bricking it at Apples, Samsung or Huawei whim is for me dystopian. Access to software, storefronts and internet pages is slightly different in my opinion.
Because then Russians would stop buying their phones.
Why are they selling iphones in Russia?
To generate profit.
Whoops! Did they put them back I hope?
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Yeah, no. iPhone VPN apps aren’t the route that Russian hackers are taking.
thanks apple. putin is scum and the longer his goons enjoy a normal life the worse. make russian lives as bad as possible so we can have ukraine back.
The average russian citizen is not putin’s goon
Indeed, the goons don’t care, they use Russian services
keep telling that to yourself. just because they dont act like what you consider a goon doesnt mean they arent. we have this saying: if 9 ppl sit at a table and 1 nazi sits down with them and none walks away, bam, you have 10 nazis. so.
An entire fucking country isn’t a small gathering bro, are you high
This is a bad move. The more Russian citizens have access to outside information, the better chance they can learn what’s actually happening in Ukraine and the amount of damage the government is doing to their own country. The more Russians that have exposure to that information, it becomes more likely that the people will show their dissatisfaction. Without VPN, the people only have access to the internal propaganda.
like they did learn anything when it was open with Michail Sergejewitsch Gorbatschow. russians as a whole havent learned basic lessons of civilisation. your logic also failed in china.
make russian lives as bad as possible
Wasn’t that the Shock Doctrine strategy from back in 1996? Anyone remember what followed?
wrong year. making russian lives bad was before it successfully ended the terrible UDSSR regime.
That’s an incredibly curious reading of the Cold War. I’m going to run off and assume you thought the world economy was doing great in the 1980s except in the Soviet Bloc?
