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

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    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.

  • narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    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.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Corporations. Are. Not. Your. Friend.

    This message courtesy of corporations rent seeking on public infrastructure our economies cannot survive without.

  • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    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.)

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        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.

    • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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

        • Frostbeard@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          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.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    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.

      • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        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.

        • B312@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          An entire fucking country isn’t a small gathering bro, are you high

    • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      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.

      • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
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        3 months ago

        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.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      make russian lives as bad as possible

      Wasn’t that the Shock Doctrine strategy from back in 1996? Anyone remember what followed?

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          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?