{"id":30409,"date":"2020-10-09T15:12:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T19:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=30409"},"modified":"2021-07-06T15:22:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T19:22:28","slug":"apple-forces-telegram-to-close-channels-run-by-belarus-protestors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/09\/apple-forces-telegram-to-close-channels-run-by-belarus-protestors\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Forces Telegram to Close Channels Run by Belarus Protestors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/44339\/telegram-forced-to-close-channels-run-by-belarus-protestors\">Scott Chipolina<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/08\/protonmail-forced-to-add-iap\/#comment-3337376\">Old Unix Geek<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=24722130\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/44339\/telegram-forced-to-close-channels-run-by-belarus-protestors\">\n<p>Apple is requesting that Telegram shut down three channels used in Belarus to expose the identities of individuals belonging to the Belarusian authoritarian regime that may be oppressing civilians.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>These channels are a tool for Belarus&rsquo; citizens protesting the recently rigged presidential election, but, with a centralized entity like Apple calling the shots on its own App Store, there&rsquo;s little the protesters can do about it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/04\/apples-commitment-to-human-rights\/\">Apple&rsquo;s Commitment to Human Rights<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/25\/hkmap-live-removed-from-the-app-store\/\">HKmap Live Removed From the App Store<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/31\/gab-will-become-a-mastodon-fork\/\">Gab Will Become a Mastodon Fork<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/31\/apple-hasnt-blocked-telegram-app-but-wont-allow-updates\/\">Apple Hasn&rsquo;t Blocked Telegram App, But Won&rsquo;t Allow Updates<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"apple-forces-telegram-to-close-channels-run-by-belarus-protestors-update-2020-10-12\">Update (2020-10-12): <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/s\/durov\/136\">Pavel Durov<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=24737171\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/t.me\/s\/durov\/136\"><p>Apple released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gazeta.ru\/tech\/news\/2020\/10\/09\/n_15056407.shtml\">statement<\/a> saying they didn&rsquo;t want us to take down <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/durov\/135\">the 3 channels<\/a> run by the Belarusian protestors, but just specific posts &ldquo;<i>disclosing personal information.<\/i>&rdquo;<\/p><p>This sly wording ignores the fact that channels like <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/karatelibelarusi\">@karatelibelarusi<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/belarusassholes\">@belarusassholes<\/a> consist entirely of personal information of violent oppressors and those who helped rig the elections &#x2013; because that is why those channels exist.<\/p><p>By hiding their demands with vague language, Apple is trying to avoid the responsibility of enforcing their own rules. It is understandable: according to <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/telegrambelarus\/13\">this poll<\/a>, over 94% of Belarusian users think the channels that made Apple worry should be left alone.<\/p><p>Previously, when removing posts at Apple&rsquo;s request, Telegram replaced those posts with a notice that cited the exact rule limiting such content for iOS users. However, Apple reached out to us a while ago and said our app is not allowed to show users such notices because they were &ldquo;<i>irrelevant<\/i>&rdquo;.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alexstamos\/status\/1314958895236829184\">Alex Stamos<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/alexstamos\/status\/1314958895236829184\">\n<p>I had been looking forward to next week&rsquo;s new batch of iPhones for a while, but thanks to Apple&rsquo;s increasingly unethical use of DRM to enforce their rules and support of authoritarian regimes, I gotta consider moving the entire family to the Android ecosystem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/i0n1c\/status\/1315040725038440453\">Stefan Esser<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/i0n1c\/status\/1315040725038440453\">\n<p>In this comment it was said that Apple told Telegram to censor the info that certain posts had to be removed due to Apple. Standard apple monopoly practice. When we released SysSecInfo Apple bullied us into removing features and they forbid us to inform users about it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/28\/facebook-rejected-for-mentioning-app-store-fee\/\">Facebook Rejected for Mentioning App Store Fee<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p id=\"apple-forces-telegram-to-close-channels-run-by-belarus-protestors-update-2020-10-15\">Update (2020-10-15): <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/2020\/10\/telegram_apple_belarus\">John Gruber<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/daringfireball\/status\/1316547092043636736\">tweet<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=24786752\">Hacker News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/appleinsider.com\/articles\/20\/10\/15\/apple-demands-telegram-to-remove-posts-related-to-belarus-protests-controversy-ensues\">AppleInsider<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/2020\/10\/telegram_apple_belarus\"><p>This has nothing to do with relevance and everything to do with convenience. I&rsquo;ve <a href=\"https:\/\/daringfireball.net\/2020\/07\/parsing_cooks_opening_statement\">said it before<\/a> and will adamantly say it again: it is <em>prima facie<\/em> wrong that one of the rules of the App Store is that an app is not allowed to explain the rules of the App Store. I&rsquo;m hard pressed to think of an exception to this conviction, not just on Apple&rsquo;s App Store, but in any sphere of life&#x2009;&mdash;&#x2009;whether a harmless game or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/sixth_amendment\">administration of the law<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=24789928\">saagarjha<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=24789928\">\n<p>My own experience with this was that once I included a description of an OS bug I worked around in the changelog of my apps and the reviewers made me remove it with almost exactly the same verbiage&#x2013;I can&rsquo;t remember if they actually said &ldquo;irrelevant&rdquo; but the summary was &ldquo;this information is not useful to your users&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>My experience has also been that you&rsquo;re not allowed to mention OS bugs in release notes, even if they were officially reported via Radar and acknowledged there by Apple. &ldquo;Irrelevant&rdquo; basically means &ldquo;potentially embarrassing to Apple.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dhh\/status\/1316774932215459840\">David Heinemeier Hansson<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dhh\/status\/1316774932215459840\"><p>Apple reaching inside communication apps to tell the maker what users can and cannot posts is &#x1F34C;. Apple then asking that their censorship is kept private is &#x1F92F;. Apple justifying their prohibition on notices because they&rsquo;re &ldquo;irrelevant&rdquo; is positively 1984.<\/p><p>Phones are the primary computing device for the majority of people today. It&rsquo;s completely insane that we&rsquo;ve arrived at a place where two companies can dictate what can be said or installed on those devices.<\/p><\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Chipolina (via Old Unix Geek, Hacker News): Apple is requesting that Telegram shut down three channels used in Belarus to expose the identities of individuals belonging to the Belarusian authoritarian regime that may be oppressing civilians. [&#8230;] These channels are a tool for Belarus&rsquo; citizens protesting the recently rigged presidential election, but, with a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2020-10-09T19:13:03Z","apple_news_api_id":"2ce8969e-e837-494d-b3ae-360f9dec69fd","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-07-06T19:22:31Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ALOiWnug3SU2zrjYPnexp_Q","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[91,2092,38,31,1837,26,1677],"class_list":["post-30409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-appstore","tag-app-store-takedown","tag-apple","tag-ios","tag-ios-14","tag-iosapp","tag-telegram"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30409"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30475,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30409\/revisions\/30475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}